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HAWAII 



BY 



Anne M. Prescott 




San Francisco 

C. A. Murdock & Co. 

1891. 






Copyrighted 

Anne M. Pkescott 

1891. 



Mu ^w* lister, 

©areas* ffle Sbilba Prescott, 

tftis Eittle Book 

is Itoirinflig Inscribed 



THE KAMEHAMEHAS 



THE Sandwich Islands or in other words the 
Hawaiian — the Hawaiian Kingdom — Hawaii— 
the Home of the Kamehamehas. 

Kamehameha I, a man of shrewd sense and courage, 
formed the islands into one kingdom, and in 1810 
caused them to be placed under British protection. 

Under Kamehameha II idolatry was abolished 
throughout the islands. 

Kamehameha III granted a constitution, consist- 
ing of King, Assembly of nobles, and representative 

council. 

In 1843 the independence of the Hawaiian King- 
dom was declared. 

Kamehameha IV came on in 1854,and after abriet 
and useful reign of nine years, was succeeded by his 
brother, Kamehameha V. 

Lunalilo was elected in 1873, Kalakaua in 1874. 

On the death of Kalakaua I, January 20th, 1891, 
his sister, Princess Liliuokalani, became Queen of 

Hawaii. 

The first missionaries came in 1820. In forty years 
the entire Hawaiian nation was taught Christianity, 
besides learning to read and write, to cipher and to 



6 — 



sew. But there was good material to work with— 
never the like in any known heathen land,— and 
the finest climate the sun ever shone upon' A 
guileless, happy, laughter-loving, flower-loving, song- 
loving, willmg-to-be-taught race, with hands and feet 
and heart eager to help on the work ! No dearth of 
fruit in the valleys and on the hill-sides— no scarcity 
of fish, no lack of water ! 

This chain of islands runs from southeast to north- 
west, and lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 
While the largest of the group, Hawaii, has an area 
oi nearly 5000 square miles, the next largest, Kauai 
has but 780, Maui 750, Oahu 600, Niihau, the smallest 
of the seven, 110. There are a few islets. The entire 
population is about 90,000. 

These islands are of volcanic origin, and contain 
the largest volcanoes, both active and quiescent, in the 
world. The most prominent physical features of the 
group are the two lofty mountain peaks of Hawaii, 
Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, each of which is 14 000 
feet in height. 

Kilauea, on the Mauna Loa mountain, the largest 
active volcano in the world, has a crater nine miles in 
circumference, and is 6000 feet above sea-level On 
Maui, the crater of Hale-a-ka-la (House of the Sun ) 
by far the largest extinct crater known, is nearly 
thirty miles in circumference, and stands 10,000 feet 
above sea-level. The channels between the islands 
are very rough, and there are few good harbors, Hono- 
lulu being the chief one. 



— 7 — 



The climate is never too hot nor too cold, never 
much below 70° nor above 90°, the year round. They 
are not close to the Equator, but just inside the Trop- 
ical belt, between the 19th and 23d parallels of lati- 
tude, and extend from longitude 155° to 161°. They 
are about 2000 miles from Tahiti and twice that from 
the Colonies; two thousand miles from San Fran- 
cisco, one week's sail by steamer, and two by sailing- 
vessel. They are alone, in mid-ocean, with a climate 
all their own, and ' none exactly like it on the face of 
the earth ! 

To be overcome by the heat, sun-struck, is a thing 
unknown. It is not perfectly dry all summer, nor 
perfectly wet all winter! It is simply " Fairyland "— 
a land of perfect rest and repose— a land of magnifi- 
cent hills, cloud-topped, of thousand valleys and ra- 
vines, of streams and waterfalls, of glorious sea and 
sky, " Where the new comer, in deathless summer 
dreams away troubles." 

It will rain in summer time if it choose, gentle, 
filmy, sunshiny showers, light enough for a new 
baby's uncovered head to bear! Or, it will storm (but 
never cold)— a beating, tearing, threshing wild storm 
of wind, with perfect torrents of water, when all the 
clouds, from mountain and horizon will meet, and 
form in solid ranks, to pour their contents down ! In 
a few hours streams will become rivers, cataracts will 
go dashing down into the valleys, and native huts will 
spin and whirl, with trees and branches for their com- 
panions, " adown the brimming river " ! Thunder and 



— 8 — 

lightning will be heard, all night, from every point of 
the heavens, and all nature will be in an uproar! 
But, lo! the clouds are parted, and, swiftly, the war- 
ships of the sky retreat to the hills again, and back 
down to the horizon. The cannonading has ceased ; 
and they are silent and satisfied, looking down ap- 
provingly at their w T orld, whose face they have washed 
so clean ! The sun marches grandly on, smiling to see 
how soon all is dry once more! And, when the moon 
steps softly up, at night, with all the smaller star- 
shaped moons and twinkling children, in her train, 
they, too, delight in this wonderful work of the 
storm — and think it is the fairest, freshest, daintiest 
world their eyes ever beheld in all their wanderings ! 

And how does it rain, in winter? Well, it rains for 
matins, and for evensong, great splashing drops, with 
masses of white, fluffy clouds — sunshine, and magnifi- 
cent rainbows! In the east, and in the west, they 
span the sky, morning and night, day by day! It 
rains all night, and never a drop by day ; and it rains 
all day, and never a drop by night. "King Kona" 
comes, a few times, before and after Christmas, 
and may be there will be a " spell of weather" when, 
for days and days, not a drop can be squeezed or 
wrung from the sky, and "the oldest inhabitant" 
never recollected anything like it! 

Never was there a better sugar-producing country — 
120,000 tons shipped to San Francisco in the four 
months, from December to April, 1891! The planta- 
tions are confined to the four larger islands, Hawaii, 



Kauai, Maui and Oahu. These absorb all the great 
business interests of the kingdom. There is splendid 
pasturage; and herds of wild cattle, branded, roam over 
the plains and up into the valleys and ravines. At 
night they gather down, toward the sea,and " cattle 
views" can then be seen that are worth one's while. 

Fancy nearly all the sugar made on these islands 
being handled by natives, in bags, passed from hand 
to hand, into the small boats, thence on to the steamers. 
They are so expert, patient, and faithful, that almost 
never is there an accident to passengers, goods nor to 
the sugar. And so rough are the breakers, often, it 
seems a fearful thing to try to make a landing. It 
is not uncommon for the steamers to have to leave one 
or more untouched, on a trip, for the sea is so heavy 
that no boat could make the shore, and no passenger 
w r ould risk it. So they land where they can, and then 
take horses. There are quite good carriage roads here 
and there, but, in traveling around these islands, a 
good, stout, native horse with saddle-bags is the better 
reliance, for one is sure to meet many steep hills, ruts, 
gulches, streams, ferries, and shaky bridges. 

You can travel from one plantation to the next, by 
taking a steamer as it comes along. But in going across 
country, on horseback, there is much to be enjoyed if 
one be a good traveler. There are magnificent sunrises 
and sunsets, glorious moonlight nights, when one 
wishes never to go indoors, immense pasture for herds 
of wild cattle, turf which is agreeable to ride over, 
and infrequently a human habitation; stretches of 



10 



hills, wooded and green, beautiful valleys touching 
the sea, waterfalls, patches of rice, palms, flowering 
trees and endless climbers. At a plantation all is life 
and activity from before sunrise to dark. The sugar- 
cane, you know, is a perennial, with a root sending up 
a number of stems which grow to a height of nine 
feet or more, and are filled, two-thirds of their length, 
with a sweet, juicy pith. At one time it looks like a 
field of waving corn. The field-hands may be Chinese, 
Japanese, Portuguese and, sometimes, a few natives, 
but the latter do not care much for such work. How- 
ever, where they will engage there are none better. 
There are lunas (overseers), managers, bookkeepers, 
sugar-boilers, etc. And there are plantation owners, 
Spreckels, for instance ! There is the mill, the meeting- 
house, or church, the schoolhouse, for the school-mas- 
ter is not " abroad " at these islands; the postoffice, 
plantation store and dining-room, two or three small 
shops, may be, and the little homes of the employees. 
It is all in a nutshell — a tiny village — but the mills, 
the immense tracts of cane ! 

A busy little world of anxious cares and hopes, of 
joys and sorrows, of heart-burnings, of high ambitions 
and of disappointments, of loves and hates! As great 
the joy, as bitter the grief; as strong the love, as sweet 
the friendship, or the piety, as in any of the Old 
World's great centers ! The sky and the clouds seem 
nearer than in the temperate zones, and the planets 
look much larger. This must be owing to the atmos- 
phere and the vapor, the ranges of hills, and the many 



— 11 — 

tall trees which help to break the distance to the eye. 

Music is the chief recreation at these islands, and 
there are many first-rate musicians. 

At night, on a plantation, the horses are brought, 
often, and ladies and gentlemen — for every one learns 
to ride for convenience — go galloping over the hills to 
call on friends, staying perhaps to a musicale and com- 
ing home by the light of a tardy moon. 

Life on a plantation cuts one off from much inter- 
course with the outside world, and an island life must 
ever be peculiar to itself, in any part of the world ; but 
it has its compensations and its delights; here, far 
more than on most islands. 

It is about thirty miles from Hilo to the crater of 
Kilauea. On entering the crater the guide sounds the 
lava with his staff to test its safety. Below is a mass 
of molten fire. At night there is a canopy of vapor 
over it all, like a cloud of fire, and lightning plays 
upon the surfa.ce of the burning lake. One is glad to 
see the crater, and glad to be away. 

Every traveler who visits the crater of Kilauea is 
fain to pronounce it at once the most awful, sublime 
and wonderful phenomenon in nature. Incomparable. 
Language fails to describe it. Words seem beggarly! 
It is not within the ken of the finite mind to under- 
stand or to comprehend its whys or its wherefores. It 
is a mystery — this awful, terrible madly burning, 
boiling lake more than nine miles around and half 
a mile deep! — this wild, tumultuous, rampant, roaring 
fire!- — this mammoth bowl of seething, bubbling, 



— 12 — 

blood-red liquid lava! At the same time, to any 
one with the smallest appreciation of the ludicrous, 
it does sound laughable to say the least, to hear 
shouted in his ears as soon as ever he steps foot on 
Hawaiian soil, before he fairly has had time to swallow 
a cup of coffee, " Have you been to the volcano " f " No." 
" You're going, are n't you " ? "If I don't miss it." One 
is reminded of the zeal and haste seen often on enter- 
ing a " revival meeting," " Have you been converted " ? 
" When are you going to be"? 

Besides this crater of Kilauea — the wonder of the 
world — there is much that is enchanting on Hawaii, 
the largest island of the chain. 

It would seem as if the goddess of all the waterfalls 
had taken up her abode here from all time, and was 
forever superintending the making of them in every 
smallest valley and ravine. They are of all sizes and 
forms, from the mammoth giant of Waipio Valley to 
the tiny ones over mounds and hillocks of only a yard 
high. While looking at the rainbow tints, the hun- 
dred shades of greens and browns, of the hills and of 
the valleys, the play of the ever-shifting lights and 
shadows of cloud and sea and sky and hill-top, one 
feels quite content to sit down here and look no 
farther for Nature's beauties or wonders. " The per- 
fection of atmosphere and of scene are surely just 
here," you say. 

In the rainy season more particularly, all nature 
takes on its " high lights" of color — the never- 
ending shades and tints of green, and blue, and red, 



— 13 — 

and yellow, "in earth, and sky, and sea, and air," 
dazzling to the eye and bewildering to the artist who 
would attempt to give, on canvas, any faint idea, even, 
of such a world of color. A " companion piece " to all 
this would be a still, clear, brilliant day in mid- winter 
in New England, when every hill and valley, tree 
and fence, are in their freshest dress of solid heavy 
snow; when the sun is bright and the sky steel-blue; 
when the river is frozen over and still, and not a 
sound can be heard but the tinkling of the distant 
sleigh-bells, or the merry laughter of the skaters on 
the smooth ice. 

Aloha Hawaii nei! 




KING SUGAR 



THE following gem, " Go On," is by an anonymous 
poet. There are fourteen verses, all alike, the 
first one of which is given : 

" Go on, go on, go on, go on, 
Go on, go on, go on; 
Go on, go on— go on, go on, 
Go on, go on — go on." 

You wish me to make my subject " plain as way to 
parish church," and that is my desire, to be sure, in 
opening up this wonderful cane-producing country to 
your mental vision, this land where the people are 
"fed on the finest of wheat and honey," and with 
sweetest of water " out of the stony rock " — this "land 
of pomegranates and of oil olive " — this land of per- 
petual sunshine and of rainbow, this " Land of Prom- 
ise " — of rarest skies and daintiest air — this Hawaii. 

A soil where every foot put down to Cane, will help 
to swell the amount of the export — Sugar ! Rice (the 
best of rice), taro (as good as potato), sweet potatoes 
(as good as the Carolinas), coffee (none better in 
Java) — which were it not for the blight which often 
takes it, and for which no remedy has yet been found, 
might rival the sugar — with all the tropical fruits, 
and melons, and strawberries " for a song I" 



— 15 — 

One can every few days, take a sailing vessel (passage, 
first-class, forty dollars,) from San Francisco direct for 
Hilo, on the Island of Hawaii; or for Kahului, on 
Maui, making port in about two weeks. From these 
points passage on an inter-island steamer can be 
taken, for Honolulu, for six dollars. Of course, one 
can reach the capital from many other points around 
these islands. But these are important centres, and 
from them a traveler can make good progress in 
any direction he may wish to steer. For the small 
sum of seventy dollars, one can reach Honolulu from 
San Francisco in seven days, traveling in a floating 
palace, with no reasonable wish ungratified, and with 
a most superb table, where the bill of fare is almost 
2100 miles long! and one fairly needs to lie awake 
at night to decide what to call for at breakfast, so 
tempting and so unbounded are the viands. 

You will agree with me, I am sure, that there is 
nothing one will recollect longer than discomforts and 
discontent realized on a sea-trip. One remains with 
me yet, like a bad dream, after many years. There 
was, first of all, lack of skill in the officers ; then, want 
of principle, for one was intoxicated during a distress- 
ing storm — water was scarce it is true, — and the table 
was bad ! 

But these steamers ! I speak for myself — one would 
wish to live one week of every month on land, and 
three at sea. And such a sea ! Troubles gone, cold 
winds forgotten ; for stormy ocean a peaceful lake, 
warm soothing air, and a serene sky — the " Rainbow 



— 16 — 

Land " just ahead of us — and a Captain who will 
pilot safe into the port ! 

From Kahului, which is a tiny village on the shore, 
you can take a train (one passenger-car) for Wailuku, 
three miles inland, and a charming little place it is, 
with Haleakala directly in front of you, and magnifi- 
cent Iao Valley about a block off. Here, to make any 
of these trips, you will need a stout native horse, and 
they are often quite cheap. 

In this little town of Wailuku, you will see a neat 
church and parsonage (English Mission), a Roman 
Catholic, and a Presbyterian, as many as three shops, 
a little post-office and a burying-ground. 

When you find how very quiet it is, you may fancy 
that the people of the village are dead, or like Rip 
Van Winkle, all asleep for a term of years. Where 
they can, they take a good deal of rest, and indulge in 
day-dreams. Sugar is sweet, nutritious and satisfy- 
ing — and in many ways tends somewhat to luxury. It 
is, however, not a bad thing to " take an interest " in 
a well-growing field of cane, where you are sure of 
rain ! You will not need to fret after that, but can 
have pie and preserves for breakfast if you wish. 

Oh! no. The villagers are not dead. They are 
dreaming of "grinding" cane at the next mill, at 
Spreckelsville — ten miles off, or at Waihee or Wai- 
kapu half that distance, in opposite directions.. 

At Spreckelsville there are twelve thousand acres of 
growing sugar-cane. These fields extend for more 
than fifteen miles in one direction. The planting- 



— 17 — 

time is from June to November. The grinding com- 
mences in December. About one hundred tons of 
sugar are made in a day. 

In sugar, the British interests reach into the mill- 
ions ; but American interests are ten times as large. 
The German comes third. 

You would not wish, for a moment, to leave Iao 
Valley, for an entire day, at least. And at Haleakala, 
you can stay in the " cave " a night, can build a fire 
and cook meat on a stick! I saw the smoke there, 
even at the Parsonage, one night when some party was 
evidently getting supper! You need not make a wry 
face, for bishops have done all that in that very cave. 

Maui is about eighty miles from Honolulu, and in a 
southeasterly direction. 

Hilo, to which I now come, is about five hours' ride, 
with a good native horse, from the Crater Kilauea. 

It is second to Honolulu, but compares with it as 
well as a China doll with a two-year-old baby ! Still, 
far be it from me to contract Hilo, or detract from its 
true size in any way. If it is not a big city, there is 
land enough to cut one out of when the time comes ; 
and it need never be more beautiful when full-grown 
than it is now! There is a sea-breeze every day, 
which Honolulu can well covet! and 150 inches of 
rain in a year, which is quite enough to keep drouth 
jaX a distance ! 

There are plenty of churches for any who are Cath- 
olics or Presbyterians; and if you are neither, you can 
enter either, at any service, and find a welcome! 



— 18 — 

And let me tell you right here, that at these islands, 
you will be expected to attend some place of worship: 
" Ua mau ke ea o ka ainai ka pona " will meet your 
eye at every turn ! The homes here are lovely ; and 
the folks living in them just the right kind to meet. 
Not a pilikia to be found when you travel by the way 
of Hilo ! Two nights' and one day's sail, by steamer, 
from the Capital. 




HONOLULU 



AT Honolulu, almost everybody rides or drives, 
during the heat of the day at least ; and many 
give up the exercise of walking out o' doors, nearly 
altogether. One may any day walk two miles, night 
or morning, and not meet two ladies, the entire road. 

Nearly every family owns one horse or more, poor 
or good, and some sort of a vehicle, even if it be 
nearly as old as " the deacon's one-hoss shay." 

They drive to church, and they drive to market, 
and to call on friends, and to lunch, and for health, 
and for illness, and to kill time ; and doubtless, some 
of the ladies would drive from the veranda to the 
dining-room, if it could be managed ! 

Even in the early morning hours of that supremely 
glorious climate, when, especially after showers of the 
night, all seems like fairy land indeed — the mag- 
nificent trees, the gorgeous climbers, the intense green 
of the lawns, the deep blue of the sky, with the great 
masses of fluffy white clouds, slowly drifting about, 
just over the tops of the hills — when all nature is en- 
tirely flooded with light and glory; and when it 
seems a joy just to be alive, and out, walking in this 
most perfect, and delicious atmosphere; or, in "the 



20 



led 



cool of the day," when all work, here, is ende 
(" pau ") — when the shadows begin to lengthen, and 
when the skies are changing the color of their dress, 
every few minutes; and the planets, one after another, 
are solemnly appearing, and taking their places, in the 
dome of heaven — when, in nature all is silent, at rest, 
gone to sleep, not the quiver of a leaf, not a breath of 
w T ind, calm, quiet, and breathless — perfect repose, mar- 
velous to behold ! 

At these times, even, walking is ignored by the 
foreigner ; and j^ou can have the road to yourself, un- 
disturbed but by a native now and then! The climate 
is thought, by many, to be enervating, and it is not 
the " fashion " to walk — not considered " good form " ! 
How do the ladies manage to keep their health? That, 
I cannot say. But, they do not die there, faster than 
anywhere else, that I could discover. For one thing I 
can vouch: Doctors, in Honolulu, are a good deal 
"thicker than blackberries." They may be seen, at all 
hours of the day, riding, or driving from one point of 
the compass to another, with* fine turnouts ; them- 
selves looking comfortable and content! 

It occurred to me, at one time, that if any more 
should come, without the means of returning, a 
" house of refuge " or, a " charity " of some sort would 
have to be founded for their relief. But, I had made 
a miscalculation, for they came, and continued to 
come, in goodly numbers. 

I went over my figures, with more care. And I 
then decided, after a deliberate survey of the subject, 



— 21 — 

that if there was not more than one doctor to every 
two families, of means, (you know, by the way, that 
"planters'' are wealthy) he could prosper, and do 
well. If he were sufficiently skillful not to kill off 
any of his patients, he might even accumulate money 
in a few years, and retire ! 

When one comes to Honolulu, until acclimated it 
always seems too warm. To work, or to make any 
exertion is almost out of the question; and the inclina- 
tion is, often, to simply do nothing, but to invest in 
day-dreams, and in Spanish castles ! 

Such a delicious atmosphere, that it is! A gentle- 
man came to the Islands from Germany. He had 
made a study of the English language, just before 
starting; it may be, from some one of those attractive 
text books : " English, in Twelve Lessons " or, 
" English, without a Teacher"! I was convinced, 
from what he said, that he could read it well ! He 
said to me, one day, soon after his arrival, " It ish so 
varm — so varm, (I cannot talk much English vot you 
shpeak). It ish so varm, I cannot eat something." 

On moonlight nights it seems a sin to go indoors at 
all — and the natives stay up until daylight; stroll- 
ing up and down the roads, in groups, with leis of 
flowers around the neck and on the hats — barefooted, 
and thrumming away on a taro-patch fiddle or a 
.cheap guitar, keeping time to their native songs, or 
meles, which are endless. 

The national hymn is, " Hawaii Ponoi," and corre- 
sponds, to "America." All entertainments, public and 



— 22 — 

private as well, are ended with the playing of this 
hymn. It is very fine. The music was composed, by 
Berger. 

Hawaii ponoi na-na-i ko Moi, 
Ka lani Alii, ke Alii. 
Ma kua lani e Kamehameha e, 
Ka ka ua e pale, me ka i he. 

The bandmaster is, from his great musical skill, 
together with his kindly and amiable nature, a great 
favorite, and is as much a feature of this cosmopolitan 
little town as " Punchbowl," (which overshadows 
Emma Square, a very quiet and well-behaved, tamed 
and friendly volcano!) or, as his Majesty the King, 
and would be missed far more than the whole legis- 
lative body ! 

The natives are a happy, affectionate, light-hearted 
race; unless greatly wronged in any way always 
laughing and singing like merry children. Generous 
to a fault — entirely ignorant of the value of money, 
and never to learn it, hospitable to a degree. That, is 
the Hawaiian. 

One is very likely to get some wrong impressions 
and to form erroneous opinions, to a certain extent, if 
remaining at the islands a short time only. 

I will not admit that I am more obtuse than the 
average, yet I know that when resident there more than 
twelve months, I knew very little, comparatively speak- 
ing, of island life, or of the islanders, themselves. 

Almost any night or morning, a steamer can be 
taken at Honolulu, for Maui, and Hawaii, or for 
Kauai ; the longest trip being to Hawaii, two nights, 



— 23 — 

and one day. The other three islands can be visited, 
infrequently. No inter-island steamer leaves on Sun- 
day. On the Hawaiian silver coin is the motto, " Ua 
mau ke ea o ka ainai ka pono " — " The strength of the 
land is in righteousness." 

The channels, between these islands, are very rough. 
But business and traffic must go on in spite of winds 
and waves, and the Islanders try not to mind it 
much. There is almost never an accident, so great is 
the care used. All the " landings" around these 
islands, must be made in boats. But natives are in 
charge of them, and so skillful and expert are they in 
these matters, that neither traveling nor business 
could be carried on, to any extent, without their aid. 
The transportation of all the passengers, together with 
the machinery used on the plantations, the furniture, 
produce, etc., are dependent upon their care and vigi- 
lance! and faithful, and patient they are, to the letter. 
While they are never reckless on the water, they seem 
to " the manner born," and to know no fear. It seems 
as hard to drown a native as to drown a fish ! 

They are equally skillful, in their management and 
training of horses. Like the gypsy, they seem to 
know the charm to be whispered in a horse's ear! 
" There is much in the native ! " You may fancy that 
you know them very well — that you have been in and 
out among them pretty much all your life — that you 
can, perchance, speak their language to its last idiom, 
or colloquialism. They will come around you, and 
unless they choose, you cannot divine one bit of the 



— 24 — 

information they are giving to one another, and this 
without showing any rudeness. They are Nature's 
true children and know how to guard their secrets. 
You will feel somewhat like the gentleman from Ger- 
many — "I cannot talk much native what you speak! " 

It can never quite be said to be " dull" in Honolulu, 
at least, to any true lover of nature. The climate is so 
perfect, that to watch the sky, the lights and shadows, 
the cloud effects, the rainbows, the beauty of the hill- 
top and the valley, is enough ; and to such an one, I 
repeat " dullness" would seem a misnomer. It is said 
that among the most magnificent mountain scenery 
of Europe, the mountaineers, themselves, are led to 
wonder why people come so far to see their country! 
That cannot be said, entirely, of the Islanders; though 
many of them seem insensible to the great beauties, 
by which they are surrounded! From a business, 
or social, point of view, during midsummer, when 
many go to the Coast, or to beach, and mountain-side, 
it is then quiet in Honolulu, and " steamer day " makes 
a welcome break. 

The capital, you know, is but a tiny, little city. 
Were it not for the sugar interests, which are 
getting to be enormous — and involving national 
jealousies in their train, — the rice, and a few other 
things of minor importance, it would seem but a 
country village, on the shore; or at the most, to 
speak largely, a country town. Nevertheless, it is a 
unique, most unique, cosmopolitan city, with great 
shipping interests, — the home of King and Court, and 



— 25 — 

all carefully protected by British, and American men- 
of-war. 

Ten minutes' walk, at an easy gait, will see you 
over and through the business part of the town; 
including the banker, the butcher, the baker, the poi- 
makers' places — and a peep at the postoffice, and cus- 
tom house as well ! Ten minutes again, from the 
steamer-wharf, will bring you inside the Palace-gate, 
for the latch-string, now, is always outside ; in other 
words the grounds are open to the public. An 
audience, with Royalty, however, sometimes requires 
a little more ceremony ! 

The Palace is good enough, for all intents and pur- 
poses — and far too fine for such visitors as too often 
go there; but, in its appointments — and from a refined, 
and artistic point of view, it will not compare favor- 
ably with thousands, I may say, of homes in America — 
even with many not one-half so large ! 

The Hawaiians, where well-to-do and able to grat- 
ify their taste, are more or less barbaric in the use of 
colors and adornments. 

While young, their eyes are clear and expressive. 
Their teeth are firm and white, as a rule. When 
older, they are often too heavy and coarse, the eyes 
dull, from the use of native liquor, " ava," — and the 
mouth disfigured, from the frequent use of tobacco 
and the clay pipe. In a group of women, the pipe is 
often passed from mouth to mouth. 

Whatever a native agrees or undertakes to do, he 
will do faithfully and well, to the letter. But it is not 



— 26 — 

in the nature of things — " the eternal fitness 
things," that, with a country and climate like Ha- 
waii, he should like to do everything, even to accom- 
modate the " foreigner " in his piling up of wealth ! 
There is always a plenty of fruit, in the valley and on 
the hillside, fish in the sea, taro in the patch at hand, 
flowers on the roadside, music in his brain, friends 
never cold ! Why should he do hard or menial work? 
They are nature's kings and queens, in their own 
right; and Hawaii is their own. 

Aloha, Hawaii! Aloha nui! 



KAUAI 



YOU wish I would not make use of the exclama- 
tion point so often — you are tired of seeing it ? 
So am I, milady. But, " my gracious !" " I wish to 
goodness," then, that you, or somebody else, had in- 
vented a new set of punctuation marks before it be- 
came my " bounden duty " to write w T hat I saw in this 
wonderful wonder of a country, with its magnificently 
magnificent waterfalls, not to speak of its million and 
one exquisitely exquisite smaller ones, and all the 
way down to the tiniest tiny — its very loveliest loves 
of rainbows — and its most superbly superb coloring, 
over and around and under them all — in earth, and 
sky, and sea ! A single exclamation point, forsooth ! 
Why do I not live — and die there? " Don 't be sassy!" 
You are not my father confessor, nor even my confi- 
dential friend and adviser ! 

When I speak of a native hut, or grass-house, you 
may, naturally enough, fancy it means a very despic- 
able sort of a domicile or residence! Not at all. It is 
often a very picturesque and comfortable abode ; airy, 
light, cool and clean. There are natives and natives! 
And now and then one will be seen — like to poor 
Lelea's " Brown" — as lazy and shiftless as the most 



— 28 — 

shiftless white man. Certainly, this will manifest itself 
with no uncertain signs and sounds about his dwell- 
ing; for one is sure to see, in an unkempt, untidy, 
native home a lot of miserable, gaunt, ragged-coated 
dogs. 

In early times, and even later on, the natives were 
often induced (I am sorry to write,) to part with large 
tracts of land, their rightful inheritance, for a good 
deal less than the value of a good song! But they 
are wiser to-day (if not happier,) the gentle, laughter- 
loving, honest-hearted race ! Nearly all of them own 
at least enough land for their taro. A few of. them 
are even well-to-do; some of them (as well as the 
foreigner) owning quite large plantation shares. 

The natives if cut off from their taro (poi), grow 
listless and unhappy — actualty pine away in no time. 
The taro can be boiled, and then an inch of the rough 
outside cut off, w r hen it is as large as a large ruta- 
baga turnip ; in color, a delicate violet or lavender, 
mottled a little, with white, fine grain, firm, light and 
delicious. It can then be toasted, and tastes precisely 
like roasted chestnuts. It can be boiled or baked. 

But the natives care nothing at all for it, in any of 
these ways. It is made, b)^ them, into a porridge, 
thick or thin; one-finger, two-finger, three-finger, poi. 
It is prepared with great care, and put into calabashes, 
large bowls made of wood. Some of these are very 
handsome, as highly polished as rosewood, and often 
"a thing of beauty." I saw one, belonging to his late 
Majesty, Kalakaua, of silver, in shape of a lotus 



— 29 — 

flower. But, in the native woods, koa, or kou, they 
are much more beautiful. There are exquisite tables 
of these woods, inlaid, to be seen in the Museum at 
the Government Buildings, opposite the Palace, in 
Honolulu. Poi, I say, is set away, covered, and as it 
grows more and more acid and keeps rising, like a 
thin batter, the bowl will likely be full until it is 
" pau" — gone ! Some of these bowls will hold a large 
quantity, but they are of different sizes. Poi is an ac- 
quired taste entirely ; but if one can learn to eat it, it 
is almost life-giving in that climate. 

Doctors often order it to be taken in milk, or water 
even, in fever and other ailments where nothing else 
can be retained. It is very nutritious and restorative. 
Taro is never cheap. 

When you come to a comfortable native hut on 
Kauai, you will see the taro patch, the running water, 
the cocoanuts, flowering shrubs and climbers, you may 
be sure, and hills not far off; for the natives have an 
eye to beauty and comfort. You will see, also, a 
plenty of light, clean cool mats of their own making, 
and if the native has "not a shoe to his foot," you can 
be sure he will have hats enough to his head. 

It may be one can be bought of his wife, which has 
taken all her leisure time for a month to plait, as 
light and fine as if from a fairy's loom! A dainty 
thing, enough, when trimmed with lace, for a queen's 
outing. It can be bought for the small sum of eight 
dollars, Some of the matting is fine enough to go 
down, as an heirloom, in a family. The natives make 



— 30 — 

many kinds of necklaces. Those made of the feathers 
of the "oo" sell for as much as fifty dollars. There is 
also one made of a pretty brown berry, with a rare, 
delicate perfume which never dies out. These berries 
are found in abundance in some spots on this Island 
of Kauai. 

The natives are intellectual to a degree, but they 
lack the power of reasoning and concentration, and in 
mathematics the American or English boy will out- 
strip them every time. But they can excel in pen- 
manship and in drawing. 

They have the very " soul of music " in their soul, 
I can say sole as well, for where they learn to dance 
they have, naturally, an ease and grace, difficult, as a 
rule, to be acquired by foreigners. And they are a 
nation of orators. A Hawaiian will enter a drawing- 
room and, if addressed in native, will continue a con- 
versation, or an argument, with as much composure 
and ease as if he had the " blood of all the Howards/' 
Washingtons or Lafayettes in his veins. 

Doubtless, when thoroughly roused, from any very 
great wrong or injustice — for they have a keen and 
correct sense of the term, justice — the savage might be 
clearly discerned. I have heard it said that when 
enraged, in early times, they owned the secret of 
handling a man so as to unjoint every limb of his 
body. But they possess no malice, nor do they pre- 
meditate any wrong. What higher meed can I give 
to the native when I say that, on these islands, a 
woman can always look for protection and help from 
them, at any time or place! 



— 31 — 

Kauai is the " garden island " of the group, and as 
it is much smaller than Hawaii, the distances short 
between given points, and the roads good in certain 
ways, it is easier journeying than on Hawaii or Maui. 
At the same time, there is nothing like tight saddle- 
bags, water-proofs, and a good native horse. These 
are strong, steady, not too fast, but as sure-footed as the 
chamois. And when I tell you that on Kauai, even, 
you may have to mount seven steep hills, in going 
three miles, you will see what you need in the way of 
a carrier! 

Kauai is the most northerly of the group — between 
21° 47' and 22° 46', and is ninety miles from the 
Capital. 

In a trip of thirty miles can be seen forests of the 
mountain apple, (ohia) with its beautiful leaves and 
tempting fruit, immense banana trees, and cocoanut, 
rice fields, taro patches, guava and orange, lemon and 
olive, kukui and koa trees ; mosses, vines and ferns, 
passion flowers and magnolias, roses and geraniums, 
and countless more of brilliant and gaudy hue. 
Wherever you see a native, you will also see flowers. 

" See Hanalei and die." Well, I did see the valley 
and live to write it. One thing I can say in all 
truth, I shall not die, if I try to do so in a more lovely 
place. We started in the early morning, jogging 
slowly and quietly along, up hill and down, passing 
now and then a Chinaman on foot, now and then a 
native group or a native place, stopping often to 
exclaim of beauties on every side. After ten miles 



— 32 — 

we began to mount, to reach the plateau which looks 
down on this trebly-enchanted vale. I recollect how 
anxiously I watched my horse up this almost perpen- 
dicular ascent, as patiently he plodded, sure and firm- 
footed, up and up, I coaxing and praising, when it 
seemed as if "in the nature of things" he would slip 
back. "Will he go to the top ? Indeed he will, splendid 
fellow that he is! I am tired, from fear ; but he is not 
tired a whit. 

How can I describe this valley? 

It seems to me that not the valley, the scenery, 
the hills, the trees, the sky are what strike a new- 
comer most forcibly — but the coloring! the million 
of shades and tints, the lavish wealth of color, which 
confounds and amazes! Living in sight of a semi- 
circle of hills and valleys, I was constantly wondering 
at this, and watching the clouds as they rested often 
below the peaks, and on the sides. This was the first 
attraction, as I gazed far down into this valley; and 
the next — Tennyson's very own " Brook " I saw was 
there — I knew it in a minute! 

" I come from haunts of coot and hern, 
I make a sudden sally, 
And sparkle out among the fern 
To bicker down a valley." 

Of course it did, for are there not millions and mill- 
ions of ferns — did I not trim the whole house with 
them on any festive occasion? 

" By thirty hills I hurry down, 
Or slip between the ridges." 



— 33 — 

Had I not just traveled up and down a dozen of 
the thirty? 

" Till last by [sugar-cane] I flow 
To join the brimming river, 
For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever.' ' 

" I chatter over stony ways, 
In little sharps and trebles, 
I bubble into eddying bays, 
I babble on the pebbles. 

" With many a curve my banks I fret, 
By many a field and fallow, 
And many a fairy foreland set 
With willow, weed and mallow. 

"I chatter, chatter, as I flow, 
To join the brimming river, 
For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever. 

" I wind about, and in and out, 
With here a blossom sailing, 
And here and there a lusty trout, 
And here and there a grayling. 

" And here and there a foamy flake 
Upon me, as I travel, 
With many a silvery water break 
Above the golden gravel. 

" And draw them all along, and flow 
To join the brimming river, 
For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever." 

And then the tiny houses down there, how small 
they looked, embowered in vines and shrubs and trees! 
and the miniature rice lakes set in green ! the moun- 
tain peaks beyond, the orange and mango trees, and 
the beautiful magnolia with its wealth of perfume ! 



— 34 — 

About ten miles from Hanalei is Kilauea, the 
plantation managed by Mr. R. A. Macfie. When I 
remarked the pretty gardens of the Portuguese 
laborers, I was informed that Mr. M. had offered 
prizes for the best display about their homes! He 
impressed me as a man that would think of all 
pleasant things; neighborly and helpful. 

Just beyond Kilauea we visited another valley, 
which I should not have liked to miss — Kalihiwai. 

We took steamer at Kilauea for home — Honolulu, 
stopping some hours at Kealia to take in sugar, 
passed by natives on to a small boat going back and 
forth from wharf to steamer. We had a very rough 
trip, arriving at Honolulu about eight in the morning! 



ST. ANDREW'S CATHEDRAL 

[Reprinted from The Churchman.] 



ON leaving the wharves at Honolulu and going up 
Fort street, you pass the principal retail stores in 
the city for dry goods, household furnishings, apoth- 
ecaries, groceries, etc., and half a mile or so from 
your starting point you will see, first, the R. C. Sisters' 
school for native girls, then the R. C. church, opposite 
which you will notice the " Fort-street church " — 
Presbyterian, — and there, turning the corner to your 
right and going south, you will find yourself on Bere- 
tania (English) street, and should you pursue this 
country-like road, unpaved and with earthen side- 
walks, from the corner, you would find it continues to 
be a rather wide and tolerably fair drive of four miles 
to the sea, where you can get a fine view of the Heads, 
etc. King street is another drive in the same direc- 
tion, wider, hotter and dustier by far. 

If you are looking for the English church, it being 
Sunday when you arrive there, you must give up gaz- 
ing in wonder at the pretty homes with their tropical 
trees, gorgeous creepers, ferns and inviting verandas 
which will line this entire road, and turn in w T ith me, 



— 36 — 

after five minutes' walk from the corner, to the cathe- 
dral precincts, this being one of the three entrances to 
the spacious and lovely grounds. As we get fairly 
within, after the wide driveway, which you see is 
beautifully lined on both sides with trees and flaming 
shrubs, the marines, with their officers and with 
fife and drum, from an English and from an American 
man-of-war are there before us, waiting to enter; 
and walking about, talking and laughing, are the 
Bishop's boys of Iolani College from his place two 
miles north in lovely Nuuanu Valley, and which, as 
I have lived there, I shall hope to tell you something 
about in another paper; they have just marched in 
with their teachers, and are full of life and fun, pleased 
enough to see the sailors, with whom they soon make 
friends. 

And now, as the last bell rings, in come from 
the Priory on your right the Sisters' girls, two and 
two, first quite young ladies, and then, according to 
their height, down to wee little tots. What a picture 
they make in the scene, with their white dresses and 
ribbons of every hue, as they slowly enter, with the 
" Sisters " and other teachers, the side door of the 
church! Yes, indeed; the precincts of a Sunday 
morning present a striking panorama to the quiet 
looker-on ! 

In the middle of the grounds stands the magnificent 
gray cathedral, the chancel, and two bays only, of five, 
being finished ; and no more may be, alas! for another 
generation; but, even as it now stands, it is the finest 



— 37 — 

building west of the Rocky Mountains in the way of 
a church edifice! It is Corinthian in order, the stone 
having come from England in the present Bishop's time. 
The chancel is large enough for quite a congregation, 
and is filled with exquisite stained-glass windows, all 
memorial. The altar, and the font are superb pieces of 
stone, richly carved. This cannot be said of the 
Noah's Ark of a pulpit ! Wood, good wood, however — 
walnut and plenty of it! May be, if the top could have 
been sawed off, a foot, and the panels cut out, it would 
not have been a bad thing of its kind. But the 
Bishop, seemed to have an "aloha" for it just as it 
stood — and nothing could be done, in consequence, to 
better its looks! 

Back of the cathedral is the pretty plaza of Central 
Honolulu. On the right is the old Pro-cathedral, half 
of which is now used for the Chinese mission for 
Sunday-schools, guild meetings, etc. Farther up is 
the "Priory of St. Andrew," conducted by three of the 
"Devonport Sisters" from England, who came to 
these islands, nearly twenty years ago — about the same 
time as the Bishop and his sister, Miss Willis, now wife 
of Rev. Mr. Wainwright, of North Carolina; and the 
noble, faithful work that has been done by them all 
among the Hawaiians, God has noted in His book of 
everlasting remembrance! 

To the left are the beautiful grounds and the cottage 
of the Rev. Herbert Gowan, who ministers to the 
Chinese, and who, coming from "St. Augustine's" 
four years since, set himself to work in the midst of 



— 38 — 

other toil as a "labor of love" to learn the Chinese 
language and to found a mission, which he has most 
successfully carried out, preaching to-day in that 
tongue to more than forty communicants, and 
having collected money enough to build within the 
precincts a neat church edifice! It will be at the 
Emma-street entrance — that part given by Queen 
Emma during her lifetime, and is to be begun at once, 
to the great joy of the Bishop that one of his young 
clergy has been so zealous in a work which is so im- 
portant and yet so arduous! Mr. G. is quite a remark- 
able scholar, understanding Sanskrit and several 
other languages. 

The Rev. Mr. Barnes is another worker, one of St. 
Augustine's cleverest men, and sub-dean of the cathe- 
dral. His home, too, will be within the precincts. 

Yes; the picture is worth your while, this lovely 
Sunday morning, with the delicious, soft air and the 
glorious sunshine, the trees, the flowers, the green, 
velvet carpet, the marines, the Chinese women and 
children with their gaudy silks, the " Sisters " with 
their girls, the boys, the clergy. Surely it is a busy 
little world of many nations represented by these men 
and children here this morning, no fewer than seven by 
the boys alone! — English, American, Hawaiian, Ger- 
man, Irish, Norwegian, Chinese, as well as half-castes! 

"God hath made of one blood all nations on the 
face of the earth" is the text ever in the Bishop's 
mouth, and when I tell you that at the " college " not 
the slightest distinction is made as to color, race or 



— 39 — 

tongue, rich or poor, gentle or peasant, you will see 
that his Lordship is a true shepherd as well as mis- 
sionary! And now, if you will stay, you shall hear 
the fine organ, and the chorister boys and men, and 
that mixed congregation of natives and foreigners, 
officers and sailors, girls and boys, responding and 
singing the chants and hymns of the Church's glorious 
Liturgy ! You will not regret your stay. 

After the terrible storm at Samoa, the Bishop called 
a meeting, and money was gladly subscribed for me- 
morial windows in remembrance of the brave officers, 
English and American, who perished in that fearful 
gale! Their voices had often mingled in the worship 
of St. Andrew's Cathedral, and blanched were many 
faces and sad all hearts when the news came to 
Honolulu! 

When service is over and you wish to find a home 
for the time, you need only to cross the road and you 
are at once within the grounds of the " Hawaiian 
Hotel," where every wish will be attended to, and 
where, if you choose, you can sit all the day on the spa- 
cious verandas, with masses of flowers almost within 
reach of your hand. In five minutes, literally, you can 
be within the pretty City Library and in the " heart 
of the city," this most unique little world in mid- 
ocean — very tiny, as you will see — but representing 
many nations and interests. Berger's fine band is 
often at the hotel grounds of an evening, when they 
are illuminated and always open to the public. 

All who have traveled know and acknowledge that 



— 40 — 

at these islands is to be found the finest climate on 
this " terrestrial globe; " that the air is the softest, the 
sky the bluest, the clouds the nearest and the whitest, 
the full moon and the stars the largest, the rainbows 
the oftenest, the rains the warmest ; and so the flowers 
are the most brilliant, ferns the most delicate, palms 
the most lofty, hillsides and valleys freshest and 
greenest, the water the purest and sweetest, — and 
because of all this there is absence of all jar, and fret, 
and worry, there is quiet and rest and repose for man 
and beast; there is lack of hurry and bustle, and drive 
and scold; there is absence of crime and censure and 
harsh criticism; and in their place is, universally, the 
law of kindness and true Christian charity among all 
classes and conditions of men — overtopping and cov- 
ering both race prejudice and color. Many nations 
and races are represented here in this little kingdom 
of the sea — this " rainbow-land," this " Paradise of 
the Pacific." 

Aloha, Hawaii! Aloha nui! 




ST. ANDREW'S PRIORY. 

[Reprinted from The Churchman.] 



mY readers likely know that the Sandwich Islands, 
or the Hawaiian, lie just inside the Tropical belt ; 
and that Honolulu is the capital of the group. But, may 
be, they do not know that they are 2,100 miles, or a 
week's sail by steamer, and two by sailing vessel, from 
San Francisco, and that it is a most delightful voyage 
to make ! 

The islands are seven in number; four of them 
being of great commercial importance, Hawaii be- 
ing the largest (and so giving its name to the group), 
Maui, Oahu on which is Honolulu, and Kauai. 
The other three are Molokai, Niihau, and Lanai. Nor 
do I think that my readers know there is constant and 
regular steamer communication between the more im- 
portant islands; and that no rougher sea can be found 
than in these channels. But " use is a second nature/' 
and the people appear not to mind it much ! And the 
journey is only for one or two nights. 

The largest active volcano, Kilauea, is on Hawaii, 
and it is almost worth while going around the globe 
to see; so one need not mind a few hours' shaking up, 
if sight-seeing brings them to Hawaii. It would be a 
thousand pities to miss it! 



— 42 — 

Haleakala — Hale-a-ka-la — house of the sun — is the 
largest extinct crater, and is on Maui. There is a 
cave where a few travelers at a time can rest for a 
night and be quite comfortable. The trip is not too 
hard for one used to mountain climbing. A first-rate 
horse and good equipments are the requisites, together 
with a purse not too light, in making a tour of these 
islands. While the roads are sometimes good, they 
are often very bad ; ruts, ravines, gulches, etc., for 
which one must be prepared. There is no climate to 
fight, all is perfect, unless too warm for a stranger 
may be, or unless, in the rainy season, one be over- 
taken by a local flood. 

On the east side of Honolulu is an extinct crater 
called Punchbowl; and you can surmise why it takes 
that name. Government has put a fine drive around 
the hill to the top, where a magnificent view of the 
city can be had, looking like an immense grove, with 
a few houses interspersed, and bounded by the sea. 
Nothing could be much finer in the way of a splendid 
picture. On leaving the foot of the hill, against which 
are crowded Portuguese shanties with their tiny 
patches of vineyard and melon, in a few minutes you 
can pass the Royal School — a school of two hundred 
native boys, including a sprinkling of half-castes. 

These native boys are good in drawing and in pen- 
manship. Their eye is fairly correct in the work, a 
firm and steady hand, together with great patience. 
They are not easily disheartened or discouraged, but 
will faithfully go over and over a piece of work until 



— 43 — 

it entirely suits them. It must be admitted, however, 
that they will take pretty much their own time for 
it, and will make but little exertion, except "the spirit 
moves them I" They do not premeditate mischief, 
possess no malice, but are unselfish, generous and 
good-natured. They lack gratitude, and, as a race, 
take everything done for their benefit, small or large, 
as a " matter of course." They are noisy, boisterous, 
stormy little rascals; they will, now and then, pride 
themselves on a " swear-word ", or smoke a sly cigar- 
ette, but are always ready for a laugh and a bit of 
fun. To hear them singing " Marching through 
Georgia," and other songs of the late war, is quite a 
surprise to the stranger on the island. But it is far 
more pleasing to hear them sing in their own tongue. 
They do not fit well into English. Farther down the 
road, on the right, you will notice the lovely grounds 
and house of Bishop, the banker. 

Opposite is the home of the British minister, Mr. 
Wodehouse. Near by is Emma Square, a pretty place 
indeed, where one can hear on moonlight nights 
Berger's fine band, consisting of twenty-four natives; 
you will travel a long way to hear more entranc- 
ing music than this German Maestro, with his su- 
perbly trained " boys," can give you ! Hearing is 
believing! Such lovely nights and such fine music 
combined, did any one ever know except on Hawaii! 
Just along here you will find the Emma Square en- 
trance and the Emma-street entrance, too, to the pre- 
cincts of " St. Andrew's Cathedral," of the " Anglican 
Church Mission." 



— 44 



On the left, as you enter from the square, are the 
grounds and buildings of "St. Andrew's Priory," a 
home and school for Hawaiian girls. The grounds 
are ample for all their needs of play, and for garden. 
The buildings are convenient, cool and airy, with 
stretch upon stretch of veranda, a very desirable 
thing in a climate like Honolulu. Great royal palms 
can be seen with their tops almost to the sky, brilliant 
climbers, and dainty flowers of paler hue. Fifty 
native girls find a home and an education within this 
place, and of day pupils there are over fifty more. 

There is the pretty chapel, the schoolhouse, the 
refectory, the dormitories, the drawing-room, etc., but 
where is the soul of this place — where are the heads 
and hearts that keep this work in its place, year by 
year, prosperous and successful ? 

Ah, it is the " Devonport sisters I" and, for nearly 
twenty years, they have been working on these islands, 
among Hawaiian girls, going in and out on their 
errands of mercy, to teach, and love, and help in any 
and every way, native girls of all ages, from the young 
lad)^ to the wee tot, "counting all gain but lossj' that 
they may w r in to Christ these children, and make them 
co-workers in the Church of their love, and good 
sisters, wives and mothers, in the home-life. 

Their hospitality is unbounded. And merry is the 
time, and jolly is the treat, when " Eldress Phoebe" 
throws open the doors of her priory that all may 
enter, and enjoy for an afternoon the lovely grounds ! 
The "Good Queen Emma," the patron of the Church 



— 45 — 

on Hawaii, loved nothing better, in her life, than to 
take her quiet Sunday tea in the little parlor of the 
priory. And sadly do the Sisters miss her majesty's 
pleasant face, her cheery, sunny manners, and helpful 
words ! 

The precincts are very beautiful, with the well- 
kept velvet carpet, the trees, the flame-colored shrubs, 
reminding one of autumn leaves in New England 
just before "Jack Frost" takes them. There are 
three entrances, one on the east, west and north. Each 
is wide enough for carriages and for people. 

When the Bishop is in town he is always at the 
cathedral on Thursday mornings, at 6:30, for early 
celebration. The " sisters " are there with their young 
family — and a few others, now and then a stranger 
or two from the hotel, on the other side of the road. 
And never does the place look more beautiful than in 
the early morning. It truly looks at such times, es- 
pecially if there have been night showers, like " a new 
heaven and a new earth I" You may say, " If I go to 
the same latitude, on any other part of the globe, shall 
I not find as fine a climate as this Hawaii I hear so 
much extolled?" 

I can only say you " Nay." 

The why I cannot tell you — you must tell me. But, 
I believe it to be a fact, that the climate of these islands 
has no exact parallel. 

Marvellous in its beauty, and very even throughout 
the year, certainly it often seems too warm to the 
stranger. And it is a lulling, soothing, don't-care- 



— 46 — 

whether-school-keeps-or-not atmosphere. It is not the 
climate in which to roll up one's sleeves at five a.m., 
and do hard mental or physical work till sundown or 
midnight. 

It is the very place to stop all things of that kind 
and to do a little only, to-da}^, and the rest, or more, 
well— may be next week! It is a good place in which 
to dream life away, and not to be called idle, either, 
because you are busy watching Nature in her most 
beautiful holiday dress! Ah, yes! the Lotos will grow 
in your brain and thrive ; and you will take to a lull- 
ing dream-life, and die there, accomplishing almost 
nothing of your life's earnest, best work, unless you see 
your danger, rouse yourself, put on the brakes, and go 
where you can once again skim on skates, and smell 
the snow ! 

Aloha, Hawaii! Aloha nui! 



IOLANI COLLEGE 

[Reprinted from The Churchman.] 



IT has been in my mind of late that may be the 
readers of The Churchman would like to hear some- 
thing of " Iolani College/' the Bishop's School in 
Honolulu, a school for native boys — would like to 
know ho w a Church school for Hawaiians is conducted. 
When I tell you that the Bishop's favorite text is 
" God hath made of one blood all nations on the face 
of the earth," you will cease to wonder why in a " na- 
tive school " there may be seen not only Hawaiians 
and half-castes, but English, American, German, Nor- 
wegian, Irish, and Chinese boys as well. All receive 
the same love and protection, the rich are treated as 
well as the poor, the high-born no better than the 
lowest, all eat at the same table, meet as one family in 
the college chapel at sunrise and at sunset daily, wor- 
ship in the cathedral together Sundays and saints' 
days, share the same dormitories, and play in the 
same games. The Bishop is a true missionary, not so 
much in word as in deed, for he is a man of very few 
words, and one must often exercise great patience in 
waiting to hear him speak on any given subject. It 
is the hope of his life, doubtless, that the seed sown in 



— 48 — 

the hearts of these boys, by the example of his own most 
unselfish and self-sacrificing life, will spring up and 
bear fruit, not only on Hawaii but " unto everlasting 
life." " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye 
shall not only — " It is now nearly twenty years since 
Bishop Willis came to Hawaii, and at once opened 
the doors of this school, to help on Church missionary 
work on these islands, believing that to rightly train 
the child is to make the Churchman ! and however 
discouraging and dark all has seemed at times, he has 
never lost heart nor faith — but like a true and good 
shepherd has gone on giving of his life, strength, time 
and substance to the fold under his care. 

The poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind come 
to the college knocking for admittance and never will 
the Bishop say them nay, if it is possible to keep them. 
Nor that alone, for quite a family of boys is entirely 
dependent upon his bounty the year round. 

" Iolani College " is on the Bishop's own grounds, 
which are quite extensive, including his residence, 
the chapel, dining-hall, dormitories, bath-houses, cook- 
house, stable, and several cottages. It is about a mile 
and a half from the middle of the town, and from St. 
Andrew's Cathedral, in most lovely Nuuanu val- 
ley, facing the south and the sea, and on high land, 
overlooking the town. There is a large play-ground 
for base ball and other games. Three or four times a 
week the boys go farther up the valley, for a swim. 

Everything at the college goes on like bell-work, for 
a different boy is appointed each week to ring the bell 



— 49 — 

on the chapel, and it becomes a " point of honor" with 
them not to defraud themselves nor any one else, the 
cook for instance, out of half a minute! And woe to 
the ringer if he rang a minute too soon, when a game 
of base ball was impending ! He w r ould better dive 
for the Bishop's study for a friend ! There is the most 
perfect good-fellowship between the Bishop and his 
boys, and to him they go, for the study door is ever 
open, w r ith all troubles and difficulties that the head- 
master cannot settle. He is their father and their 
friend at all times. Often at midnight he is going, 
w r ith his lantern, the rounds of the dormitories, to see 
if " all is well." 

Just tw T o years ago this month, when the Bishop 
and Mrs. Willis returned from England, Mr. John 
Bush, of Chatham, a gentleman of large experience, 
came over to be head-master of " Iolani." Could the 
Bishop, by going to England, have ordered a master to 
be made to order, he could not have " fitted" better than 
Mr. Bush fits that most unique position! Fancy Ha- 
waiian good-natured indolence and indifference, " go- 
as-you-please " temperament, half-caste vanity and 
conceit, Irish insolence, American nervousness and 
rush, English obstinacy and persistence, German 
slowness, Norwegian dullness, and Chinese setness ! 
and by chance something else, all brought under one 
roof, and you will divine what wisdom is needed to 
prevent friction in the work undertaken ! 

To a liberal education and rare gifts in drawing 
and mathematics is added a Christianlike nature, per- 



— 50 — 

feet gentleness and simplicity of manner, and the ten- 
der heart of a woman in dealing with boys. A boy 
could do nothing too bad, even if condemned by 
half the college, to be outside the pale of his sympa- 
thy. He would hear every point the offender had to 
bring, and if punishment must be meted out to him, 
it would be in the spirit of a just but loving parent, — 
that would be the end of it, like a sum wiped off a 
slate, and the boy would have a chance' to begin 
a better course. The college, as I have said, is not far 
from the cathedral, just a pleasant march and outing 
for them, except, as now and then in the rainy season, 
when a ducking or a small tropical flood overtakes 
them, and that does not disturb their good-nature, 
even if their brand-new suit is in it all. They are 
taught self-reliance, and to laugh at trifle^. But rain 
in Hawaii is often no trifle, nor trifler, but very deter- 
mined in its soaking propensities, and the mud has 
a royal patent — Kalakaua mud. And just here let 
me say that it is a fact and no fancy that whenever 
his Majesty, King Kalakaua, arranges or sets a time, 
it matters not in what month nor what day of the 
month, for any event in the way of holiday, festivity, 
celebration or the sort, the clouds also arrange for the 
same hour, and arraying themselves in sombre mourn- 
ing tints, pack and crowd and jam closely together — 
piling up and up from back of Punchbowl, and over 
Mt. Tantalus — finally meeting in the middle of the 
town, just over the Palace roof, when down comes 
the rain straight, steady and constant ! " The 



51 



King's weather." It simply "happened so" — a coin- 
cidence, I am sure ; for I know — am perfectly certain, 
that the biggest, blackest, most threatening-looking 
cloud in the sky, could have nothing personal stored 
up against so hospitable and kindly a gentleman as 
His Majesty — not even a drop of rain. The Bishop's 
grounds are entirely carpeted with green, no dust, and 
it is the pride of the*" light infantry," the dear little 
barefooted " pickuppers," that no rubbish, not even a 
feather, shall stay long on this piece of velvet of 
nature's weaving, and the first thing in the morning 
they are out on duty. This is the task of the " small 
fry " entirely. 

Six-thirty a. m. is the bell for matins ; 7 for " prep- 
aration " in school; 7:30 for breakfast. Then play. 
From 9 until 12 is passed in school ; 12:20 at dinner ; 
1 to 2:30 school again. Then play, and work until 
bath-bell, 4:30. At 5, supper; 6:30 evensong; 7 to 
8:30, "preparation" again, and then to the dormitories. 
On saints' days the boys go to the cathedral, and then 
have half holiday. On Friday evenings there is serv- 
ice at the cathedral, instruction and choir practice. 
Saturday is a holiday. So, you see, it is a busy little 
hive of workers at "Iolani," and very proud the boys 
are of their school. And let me w r hisper in any boy's 
ear who may be reading this, that the " Iolanis " beat 
five games running out of six at base ball last season, 
competing with other teams — and where the "other 
boys" w r ere often "bigger." They came in hurrahing, 
and rang the college bell. 



THE GUAVA. 



mOST certainly a bookful cotild be written, not of 
the beauty only, but of the uses as well, of 
the trees, found on the Hawaiian Islands. 

There is the sweet guava, and the sour (very acid). 
The yellow fruit is, in shape, like a large lemon, firm 
pulp and full of bony seeds. The fragrance is most 
delightful, and peculiar to itself; like that of the pine- 
apple, the strawberry, or the earliest green apples — 
never to be confounded with any other odor ! The 
natives bring them, from the valleys, in the early 
morning, and a peck can be bought for half a dollar 
(hapalua). Jelly is made from them, in almost every 
family. 

It is easy to make, and will not spoil. However, it 
is not so rich, nor so firm as the West India. Possi- 
bly, the guavas are not so choice, or there is a " trick" 
in the making which the Hawaiians lack. It is said 
that in the West Indies the natives boil the fruit in 
the woods, that their receipt has come down to them, 
as a tradition, and that thejr would not sell it for 
money, nor give it away for love ! 

With the English, it seems to be a law, as binding 
as that of the Medes and Persians, that cooked fruit, 



— 53 — 

in one form or another shall be eaten with pudding. 
So, when the boys of Iolani College — Honolulu — 
were asked what they liked best, of all the dessert 
offered to them, day by day — pastry, biscuit and 
cheese, bananas, sago and apple sauce, tapioca and 
peach, rice and guava — " Rice and guava!" was the 
shout without a dissenting voice. 

The rice is of good quality, grown on the Islands, 
and when cooked to be soft, dry and whole, white 
as a snow-drift, and fortified with a dish of guava of 
delicate pink color, each slice perfect, and swimming 
in juice as clear as crystal, you will not wonder that 
boys (and they are capital judges and critics) would 
bid and even "bet" on it! "Rice and guava, you 
bet !" At Iolani the boys are encouraged to talk at 
meal-times; but, in subdued tones in the morning, 
and quietly at dinner-time, so as not to over-talk the 
Bishop who, as a rule, dines with anv guests in the 
Hall. 

But, at supper the head-master permits a general 
letting-up (or down) and there is much fun, hilar- 
ity and general good fellowship. Nor this alone ; they 
learn a great deal at the table from one another. 

Boys like to tell an ignorant neighbor how to spell 
a word or name a river, or give to him a bit of school 
gossip which he has been too unfortunate to hear! 
In the " waits " too, at table, they will invent games, 
often quite ingenious. " The game of seven." Each 
boy at one long table would "guess " what the dessert 
would be, for the next day ; and* they would keep 



— 54 — 

their tally, and if keen, keep their neighbor's, too ! 
When any boy had guessed right seven times the 
game was his, and the trophy, whatever was agreed 
upon. Another, was to name something, in the Hall 
of which the first letter was given. And it was curi- 
ous to note the ingenuity to keep it up. " Wrinkle," 
on the table-cloth, " crack " in the wall ! Trust a boy 
for amusing himself! 

The boys learned to know that with the Bishop, 
" Let your moderation be known unto all men," meant 
" little men " as well. For they had always finished 
their pudding before he had decided what to do about 
eating his ! But, of this they heartily approved, for 
the bell must be rung for school, directly the dining- 
hall was cleared ! 

The natives are very fond of music. The boys attend 
chapel for matins and for evensong daily. They do 
the singing, and on Sundays at the cathedral, all, 
whose voices will permit, must be in the choir, and 
very proud they are to sing. 

One little brownie was a marvel in the way of sing- 
ing. His second teeth were not cut — not on the way, 
even, that could be seen. He was a half-caste— father 
English — mother, a native. A tiny little dot, of a 
black-eyed, curly-headed, small-handed, tiny-footed 
boy. But, what a voice in that little pipestem of a 
throat ! The head-master said he had never heard 
such a voice, and I doubt if any one else had. 

He would sing John Brown, and Yankee Doodle 
with much gusto, on the play-ground, whenever the 



— DO — 



spirit moved him, and that was pretty often ! He 
was often invited, by the Seniors, who were intent on 
baseball just then, to "shut up "! 

" Ka Lani, you stop your noise." 

One hymn he liked so much, it was called his own. 

" Now Ka Lani sing your hymn." The natives are 
very wide awake to any form of ridicule, and even 
where they can speak but little English, will detect at 
once, any banter or chaffing one may choose to offer. 
He would fix his eyes on the listeners, and burst out 
with, "Oft in danger, oft in vv r oe "—watching closely to 
see if approval and delight was in their face, and if 
he detected anything like a laugh at his expense, he 
would rub his little bare feet on the floor, and in his 
cheeks one could see the rose, through all the brown ! 

The evening " preparation " was until half-past eight, 
the Juniors went to the dormitory earlier. The school- 
building is in a large paddock — about an eighth of a 
mile distant — and with very fine verandas. 

This little fellow who was a great pet, w T ould often 
coax: " Me go look stars — go look stars." I regret to 
say that in the morning he would be just as eager to 
"go look black pigs." 

He was not, altogether, a " good " boy, but had as 
much of mischief and fun in him, as the average 
white boy. Hearing a great " war of words " one day, 
in which his voice seemed too prominent, I went out as 
far as the Chapel, where I saw one of the big bo3^s on 
top, painting. It was work-hour. This little mite 
had come along with his " pick-up " tin — a five-gallon 



— 56 — 

kerosene can, with a piece of rope strung across it for 
a handle. He had set it down, and stood there in his 
little bare feet with trousers rolled up above his knees, 
his shirt tucked inside, and his little old battered-up 
hat, on the back of his head, for it was very warm, 
looking up to see how the painting was going, for he 
had an interest in that Chapel! "Here, Chip," said 
the Giant, " don't be looking up here — just go on with 
your work !" And then, came in the shout from the 
Pygmy, to the very top of the Cross, " You just shut 
up your head — you ain't my boss — never was — I stan' 
'ere long's I like /" " If you don't go to work pretty 
quick, Chippy, you'll see me down there." 

"Well, you come down, then. I ain't 'fraid you, 
I guess, if you are big." Just then, he saw the Giant 
putting one foot on the ladder, when he grabbed up 
his tin, and graduated from there to the veranda, 
diving under the fence, and losing his hat ! 

When a new boy came to the Bishop's, he brought 
all his " boy's traps" with him, such as taro-patch fid- 
dle, bats and balls, kites, etc. A big fellow of a native 
came up one night, and with him to the astonishment 
and delight of all, with the exception, I may say, of 
the head-master and a few others ! the largest kind of 
an accordeon (misnomer). 

Before "Chapel," in the morning, that music was to 
be heard, on the verandas of the dormitories — for 
a brief spell ; at noon, it again struggled in the air ; 
and it was heard in the recreation hours, and in the 
twilight ! 



— 57 — 

The head-master, who has had twenty-five years' 
experience in teaching English boys, thought best not 
to notice it, at all, and let him play it out — and he 
knew he would ; that it would in time die a natural 
death, the boys themselves would weary of it, and so 
"kill" it, as they express it, and there would be no 
nagging, and no hard feelings. 

And so it was, it became silent — and was never 
heard again! A drum — Christmas present! — went 
down also to an early grave ! But of baseball the boys 
never tire, and the ground used for that game is large, 
and the " teams " always going. 

The Bishop is a tremendous worker, reading the 
service in the Chapel at 6:30 in the morning, and at 
midnight, with his lantern, going the rounds of the 
dormitories, to see if " all is well " — his last benedic- 
tion before going to sleep himself. He has a great fund 
of dry humor, quiet and grave as he ever is. 

I asked him, one day, why he did not write a book 
of his experience on the Islands — it would be a for- 
tune. "A misfortune, you mean." 

Speaking of an English bishop, with reference to 
laundry-work, I remarked, that I did not know a 
Bishop was obliged to think of such matters. Mrs. 
Willis remarked, " I suppose his wife must." But the 
Bishop retorted quickly, "No, not when he has a 
' See' (sea) behind him." 

On Sunday nights, at half-past eight, a light supper 
was always served by Mrs. Willis herself, in the dain- 
tily-appointed parlor, for the entire household ; and it 



— 58 — 



would be impossible to find a more kindly and genial 
host than his Lordship, at such times. 



And now I come to that in Hawaii's history, which 
provokes no love, namely: Centipedes and scorpions. 
In my wonder and in my why that they are what they 
are — and to what purpose, I can only say with Portia, 
God made them, and therefore let them pass for in- 
sects. God made the butterfly and the honey-bee ; he 
made, too, let us not forget, these dreadful creatures. 

"And God saw everything that he had made, and, 
behold, it was very good." 

They are plentiful on the islands, and while their 
sting is very painful it is not fatal. 

Moral nor physical cowardice never seemed to me a 
virtue worthy of all commendation until I was an eye- 
witness to it in the centipede; and learned that at the 
least sound of the human foot it would run, and run 
like a dart (seeming to realize that it is one of a very 
bad crew, and will be killed if captured), its mail-like 
armor rattling along! 

I could but laugh aloud with glee in thinking of 
my one more fortunate escape, and sing with joy, out 
of the abundance of my heart, " Shoo fly, don't bother 
me !" I killed, with pleasure, several scorpions (there 
should be a reward offered for so doing!) but I let my 
friend, the native boy, undertake the centipedes ! 

So far as good looks is concerned there is very little 
to be said in favor of either of these villains. But, at 
the same time, there is more moral beauty in the co- 



— 59 — 

hated centipede — I mean to say I was not able to 
discern in him during my stay, a tithe of the despicable 
nature of the scorpion. It cannot be said that there 
is anything mean-looking about him, at any rate, for 
he is made out of whole cloth, and plenty of it. 

I carefully examined one, caught alive and brought 
to me in a bottle. It was a fine specimen, eight 
inches long, and for a part of its length over an 
inch broad. A perfect coat of mail of ugly, dull brown, 
strongly made and riveted, joint over joint and plate 
overlapping plate, covered its body; two strong devil's 
(curved) horns on its head, with which to plunge its 
venomous fluid into human flesh if getting in its path, 
and twenty-one pair of wretched, web-like looking feet! 
Centipede — but not hundred-footed, after all. When 
I had looked at him and spoken with him to my 
heart's content, I most earnestly wished that I might 
never see his like again — ugh ! On the contrary, the 
scorpion is a stingy-looking patched-up affair, of no 
definite color — -soft-shelled body, long, jointed tail — 
malicious, cunning, cowardly (in the worst sense of 
that term) stealing stealthily down upon you — no 
noise, no warning, until you get the sting! — a sneak- 
ing fellow, and often bringing a mate along with him. 
I recollect well a boy, unconcernedly resting his 
hand on the window-sill, and one of these vile crea- 
tures slowly sliding down to thrust in the dart, when 
the class, as one boy, shouted, "Scorpion! scorpion!" 
The natives, even, hate them, and it's a "bad lot," in- 
deed, when they will hate! And the very names/ 



— 60 — 

" Centipede " is pleasant to the ear — not unmusical, 
and, by-the-way, it is solemnly declared by many that 
the centipede sings! " Scorpion," the name is harsh, 
grating, stinging to the ear, conveys an idea of fire 
and bitter hatred! What's in a name? A great deal, 
very often ! 

I cannot describe the snakes on Hawaii, for I did 
not see one, neither did I meet with anyone who had, 
but the native boys tell me there were some on the 
Island of Hawaii, and I know it must be so. 

It is said that in Italy the horse will rear if he sees 
a tarantula before him in the road. At the Islands a 
wom,an will scream on first seeing the spider. They 
are very large, many of them simply enormous. But 
when new-comers learn that they are entirely harm- 
less, and will not hurt you, even should they walk 
over you — that they are powerful allies in helping to 
deplete the detested cockroaches, they soon lose all 
fear of them. Don't kill a spider. Long live Hawaii's 
friends ! 

I noticed one day quite a big one on the w^all of my 
room ; he was like a most exquisite bit done in fresco; 
his body was nearly as large as a small tea cup, and 
his legs described a circle equal to that of the rim of 
the saucer. Oh, it was a fine specimen of the kitchen 
fiend's arch-enemy. My readers may fancy, possibly, 
that this is a Hawaiian yarn spun from the cobweb. 
Not at all. 

The Fish Market at Honolulu, near the wharves, is 
a point of great interest on Saturday afternoons. The 



— 61 — 

natives, men, women, and children, come in to town on 
horseback, from all the outlying valleys round about, 
and in gay, holiday attire, bright, flaming holokus 
(dress), red, and yellow silk handkerchiefs around the 
neck, and men as well as women with garlands of 
flowers on neck, and hat, and horse. All are great 
and reckless riders ! You will hear the jingling of 
spurs, the rapid thud of the horses' hoofs — the shout- 
ing of "Aloha " as they dash by you, down the Pali 
road, and you will recollect it is high-carnival day ! 
They come in, not only to buy fish, of which they 
are very fond, often eating it raw, but to meet and 
greet their friends, as well. They carry- off their 
bunches of fish neatly tied up in the fresh leaves of 
the taro, a member of the calla family. 

The market is a favorite rendezvous for them. The 
meeting is a " treat" — not precisely a " feast of reason'' 
nor a " flow of soul," but as they are a very affectionate 
and demonstrative race, there is a good deal of hug- 
ging and kissing, laughing and crying, all in a breath ! 

One comes to know r , in time, that they are very emo- 
tional, and that their feelings, do not, often, run too 
deep. It is, with them, " off with the old love, and on 
with the new," just when the fancy moves ! They 
are as light-hearted as the negro, fond of music, fond 
of laughter, fond of flowers, fond of their national 
dish — " pig and poi," and fond of their country — Ha- 
waii ! At this market may often be heard, a noisy, 
political harangue, for it is a great place — this little 
capital city — for " tempests in a teapot" — or sugar 



— 62 — 

bowl ! Once or twice they have proved quite sharp 
and even fatal, to more than one ! 

Leaving the market behind, and going north, up 
Nuuana street, which is one of the two streets 
running in that direction — Honolulu is very small 
you know — and straight to the wonderful Pali, or 
precipice, you will find you are, for a few minutes, 
in a veritable Chinese, and a Portuguese, town of 
one-story, weather-beaten, thin and ram-shackley- 
looking houses, shops, wretched restaurants, dirty- 
looking cobblers' places — curiosity-rooms, etc. But, if 
you will persevere, after about a half-a-mile of such, 
you will emerge into a clearer, sweeter atmosphere, 
and come into an avenue, of the same name as the 
street, wide, fresh and beautiful, lined with magnifi- 
cent palms — Pride of India, etc., lovely gardens and 
homes. 

You will see in the distance, Mt. Tantalus and other 
peaks, with the sweetest of valleys between — and just 
before this road begins to grow narrower and steeper, 
you will turn off, maybe, if you are an " Iolani," into 
Bishop's Lane — just one mile and a half from the mid- 
dle of the town. 

But should you continue up the hill, you will very 
soon view, on your right hand, and on the left also, 
the large and beautiful grounds of " Nuuanu Ceme- 
tery." Just beyond this, the Royal Mausoleum — the 
tomb of the Kamehamehas — of King Kalakaua I, of 
Princess Ruth, of Likelike and of the " Good Queen 
Emma " — (relict of Kamehameha IV). Now, in five 



— 63 — 

miles, you can be at the Pali. It is a carriage road, 
after a fashion, but from about here continues to grow 
narrower, more steep, rugged and hard as you near 
the precipice. No tourist would wish to miss this 
scene — to miss seeing one of the most magnificent 
stretches of land and sea lying far away below him, 
that this world has to offer ! 

From this road you can wind around Oahu, on 
horseback, if you choose. 

Aloha, Pretty Honolulu ! 




CHRISTMAS ON HAWAII 



DO they keep Christmas in Hawaii? Do they trim 
the Church, and sing carols, and all that? Bless 
me! you almost take away my breath, coming upon 
me with your rush of cold north-wind catechism! 
Kindly recollect, I am used to a " warm belt " every 
hour in the three hundred and odd days of a year, 
and can't stand such a shock ! 

Do they keep Christmas in Hawaii ? Well, I should 
think so ! You cannot even fancy with what heart, 
and soul, and mind, and strength, and earnestness, 
they keep the glorious high-day and festival ! On en- 
tering the Cathedral Christmas Eve, you will not be 
reminded by the invigorating and delightful fragrance 
of fir and spruce, of box and hemlock, of the moun- 
tain sides and the pine forests, but you will see it 
filled w T ith rare tropic exotics — the most delicate ferns, 
in "leis" — chains, ropes, garlands small enough for a 
lady's neck or large around as 3 r our arm ; in pots, in 
groups, in bunches ; magnificent leaves of the royal 
palm, cocoanut, and banana; and woven in and out, 
flowers of richest dye and color — and oh, "maile!" 
May I never be forgiven by any native if I forget thee, 
thou queen of rarest sweetness ! 



— 65 — 

Many of the ferns, and the maile, are brought from 
far up in the valleys ; and it is a labor of love — real 
work, to get them. No foreigner knows how to weave 
and plait anything at all in such perfection as the 
native. Thev are masters of the art, and no mean 
one it is! 

A little native boy will sit contentedly down if only 
he can get an armful of ferns, a bit of maile and a few 
red or yellow blossoms (oh, then is he too perfectly 
happy !) he will start a garland, and holding it be- 
tween his toes he Yfill weave it so rapidly that in a few 
minutes he will hold up, for your admiration, a yard 
in length with not a straggler in the whole line. " Is 
it good ?" he will ask, and when you exclaim with de- 
light, he will laugh and show you all his white teeth ; 
and they are very white because his skin is very 
brown — white by contrast! 

When the "good Queen Emma" went to England, 
lodging in some castle or palace, she awoke the first 
morning of her stay there, to the fragrance of new- 
mown hay, on the lawn or terrace. "Oh, maile, maile!" 
she exclaimed with joy to her attendant — but maile 
has branches and leaves ! 

It was always her majesty's delight to trim the rood- 
screen. " Sisters " undertake the altar, matrons the 
pulpit, and young girls the font. The windows are out- 
lined with palms, the recesses filled in with masses 
of flowers and ferns, leis (garlands) are hung from 
pillar to pillar, and the air is filled with the soft, de- 
licious, lulling, dreamy odor, known only to islands 



— 66 — 

in mid-ocean. But, mark ! Even before the Christ- 
mas bells have ceased their chiming, or the voices 
of the boys have died on your ears, days before 
"Twelfth Night" is come, all this must be pulled 
down and swept out! The flowers and ferns are 
quickly gone — the palms, even, are drooping, and 
"decay" is written on every smallest leaf. 

" The night before Christmas " you will hear band- 
music and singing, and the natives w T ith their taro- 
patch fiddles, all through and over the town of Hono- 
lulu, far up into the outlying valleys, and down to the 
beach! Children with their trumpets, bells and 
whistles, their dolls and rocking-horses, are out at 
and before the break of day ! 

At a Sunday-school mass meeting held in Metropol- 
itan Temple, San Francisco, just before Christmas, and 
where were gathered together hundreds of happy little 
faces, Bishop Nichols, in addressing them, said he was 
sure there was one thing that every little girl and boy 
who was present knew, and that was that Christmas 
was coming; and he did not doubt that some of them 
had already written letters and put them up the chim- 
ney, telling Santa Claus just what they wanted him 
not to forget to bring them ! He said Santa Claus had 
a very mysterious and unearthly way of getting over 
all the tall buildings; he did not understand it; he 
was quite sure that bishops could not do it ! 

At the Sandwich Islands everything is made very 
easy for " his Majesty," for very few of the houses are 
of more than one story, and there are no chimneys, 



— 67 — 

and no fire-places, " excepting/' as Paddy would say, 
" in the cook-house, and that is a stove-pipe and a 
range I" Santa Claus can put all the large presents, 
quietly on the fine, wide verandas, and fill the stockings 
hanging at the Venetian-blind doors ! And he always 
does that, for he has no end of good sense and knowl- 
edge, as well ; and he knew ages ago, that all the dear 
children in the world did not live at the top of the 
North Pole, where all the snow and ice is made, and 
where his home is — a beautiful white castle that never 
melts, even when once in a great while the sun shines! 
where all the beds are made of snow, that always keeps 
white and fluffy — and the chairs, and tables and 
pianos, look like crystal, with big icicles for legs; 
and when Santa Claus is at home in the evening, 
after Christmas is past, and it is lighted for him, 
to take a little rest, you know, it looks like a big dia- 
mond, with all the colors of a splendid rainbow, — just 
like those seen spanning the sky night and morning, 
during the rainy season on the Sandwich Islands ! Ah ! 
I tell you, " little folks," Santa Claus 7 ice-palace, and 
all that region of cold country round about, that you 
learn of in your geography, is much fairer than 
even fairest fairy -land ! However, as I said, Santa 
Claus knows very well that all the children do not live 
at his home — nor in New York and San Francisco, put 
together. And so he must hang up his big fur coat, 
for an hour or two, when he comes where it is too 
warm, for he never forgets to come, even one year ! 
But I forgot to tell you of the very tall chimneys, oh ! 



— 68 — 

as tall as a church-steeple, at the sugar mills, on the 
plantations. The cane is ground, you know, and the 
juice is boiled. The man who tends this part of the work 
is called the " sugar boiler/' and a very clever man 
he must be, and watchful and careful, as well, for, 
if a " boiling" is spoiled, much sugar and money 
is lost. 

As this man is so good as to make the sugar (and very 
hard, hot work it is), so that the children can have 
candy of all kinds (for Christmas especially) I do hope 
that Santa Claus will try to get down even this very 
high chimney, and leave some of his best presents. 
But I hope, too, that he will recollect that anything 
made of ice or snow, however refreshing it might seem 
in that hot mill, would melt, and even turn into 
steam, in half a minute, and puff out of the open 
doors and windows, right up into the sky, and become 
a cloud, and sail off towards the sea! Then the 
poor sugar boiler would not be a bit happier for 
such a Christmas gift! And, again, all through the 
winter — the rainy season — particularly in December, 
there are plenty of clouds, and they do not need any 
more — not even one ! But Santa Claus is very wise, 
and I am quite sure he will know just what to take to 
the sugar boiler to give him joy ! 

There are no hay-fields on Hawaii ; but immense 
tracts of cane, you may be sure, thousands of miles of 
it, rice swamps, taro-patches and sweet potato fields. 
There are also " vegetable gardens " belonging to the 
Chinese; and there is endless pasturage for the herds 



— 69 — 

of wild cattle which supply beef to the merchant 
vessels, whalers and others. 

The " good Queen Emma/' of whom I write, was the 
patron of the Anglican Church Mission on Hawaii. 
She was most lovely and amiable in her nature. I 
once attended a meeting of a society, where " rich 
and poor meet together," and of which she happened, 
at the time, to be president. We were told, that 
should her Majesty arrive, she must have the chair, 
the only decent one in the room, for we were sitting 
on " forms,' 7 or benches. She came in due time, and 
was offered the chair ! " No," said she, laughingly, 
" I am going to sit just here, by Miss Prescott." I had 
never met the lady, but it seemed she had the royal 
gift of " calling names." 

I protested, saying, " You will not really be so 
comfortable on the hard bench, with no back to it." 
(The English, I must say, seem to have the faculty of 
doing penance, and making themselves uncomfort- 
able often, even where there is nothing to be gained 
by it !) "And, further, your Majesty, permit me to say, 
I am not used to having royalty near to me in my 
'ain countree!'" "Ah ! my dear! am I so very 
formidable?" she rejoined, — thus making me at home 
by her winning manners and true Christian courtesy. 

Aloha nui ! 



THE SUGAR-BOILER'S VISION 



I. 

IT is a straight, brawny, Saxon-eyed, Saxon-haired 
six-footer, standing there at his mother's door, 
stamping the snow from his feet, and fastening his 
brown mare "Speed" to the tall, out-branching, snow- 
laden apple tree, planted by his father the day that he 
was born. You can see the thrifty tree that it is, and 
you can see my hero and hear him singing, hum- 
ming and whistling all in a breath, over and over 
again, the refrain from that sweet old love-song of the 
sea, "A sailor's wife, a sailor's star shall be." The 
blood is coursing, fast and strong, through all the veins 
and arteries of my handsome youth, hanging out its 
banners of health in the fair white skin and red 
cheek and in the perfect clearness of the eye as well — 
the blue eye which betokens wealth of mind, strength 
of purpose and the will to accomplish ! 

And so, I say, he looked young to be sure, but 
with a mind and a will that man nor the devil 
could not, nor would not shake nor bend ! Ah, 
but he was a brave and handsome fellow, believe, 
as he stood there, in the brilliant sunshine of that 
snow-covered country of New England's eastern shore. 



— 71 — 

He had a big sorrow in his heart, sing as loud as he 
may, bright, fair and full of life as he certainly was — 
his first, great and terrible grief! Was not his darling 
father's ship wrecked, in sight of home, one year ago, 
and not one spared to ease the story to his mother's 
ear, or bring one message of adieu to worshipped 
wife and boy! That dreadful eastern shore in winter 
and spring that " gathers them in — yes, gathers them 
in ! " God help the poor fishermen's wives and bairns ! " 

" For men must work and women must weep, 
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep 
And the harbor-bar be moaning." 

The sailor's eyes and thoughts go far out and 
over the ocean this morning and he believes now, if 
his mother will but spare him for a few months, or a 
year or two at most, he will go one seeking voyage; 
and with him, in his mind, shall go the stories told him 
by his father, on watch, in nights at sea. Of the warm 
and beautiful islands in the middle Pacific, where he 
when young had touched for stores before going to 
the far North for whale. Of a land so rich in sunshine 
and shadow — of peace and perfect beauty — of palm, of 
pomegranate, of laden trees of richest golden fruit, 
mango, banana, guava, orange, tamarind, of flowering 
tree and shrub and bush, of clear white moonlight 
nights — a land where he could have wished to live 
and die, but for the dear girl of his heart, his " blue- 
eyed Mary," who was born and bred on the far-off 
eastern shore, and whose heart would cling, he feared, 
to her childhood's home. Ah, the cruel shore! What 



— 72 — 

did it, in the end, bring to her but heart-wreck and 
death ! 

The world may all be wrong, but never shall that 
which we find within ourselves have power to charm ! 
And so, my Saxon boy did not care for, could not love 
the old merchant's pretty, fair-haired Jeannie — but 
must needs sue and beg and tease for Alice, poor, one- 
eyed sailor Jim's dark-eyed, merry-hearted little lassie! 

Now, he would have his will and way (a will it was, 
determined and almost fierce), about that one voyage 
of discovery! And mother nor love must not thwart 
him there! He would make the venture in his own 
pretty clipper ship, and Alice must consent to be both 
son and daughter to his mother until he came back to 
keep their wedding feast and festival in the little 
" Church of St. John," where he and she were christened 
when babies " Alice" and "John"; where, before he 
went voyages with his father, he had sung as chorister 
boy from the time he could read. Now, his clear 
tenor voice would ring out in the chants and hymns 
of the Church's grand, old liturgy. 

The little girl's heart was very sad in thinking of the 
long time of separation and of the mother's new grief, 
at thought of her comfort and her staj r thousands of 
miles away and alone upon the sea. 

Yes, alone in his cabin, but for one trusty mate. 

" For men must work and women must weep, 
Through storms be sudcfen, and waters deep, 
And the harbor-bar be moaning." 

And now Christmas is passed, the pretty betrothal 



— 73 — 

ring is on the finger, the last kiss is given to 
mother and sweetheart, and the strong, white-winged 
bird "The Success" puts out to sea! May God be with 
him, my good, brave-hearted boy, is the mother's 
prayer. 

II. 

Here is my strong, broad-shouldered sailor — an- 
chored after a fifteen months' cruise. Yes, anchored 
fast and sure, at these sugar-producing islands — 
Hawaii. 

He has found the fair paradise of which he dreamed; 
he has sold his tidy little ship, put the money into 
cane — invested in the Kapioanelani plantation. But 
the rains did not come this year for this district! 
The irrigation is defective! There are no dividends 
for him at present! Time may mend matters. 

He will not fret, he says; he has youth and health, 
and if he loses that which his father earned, he will 
redeem it every dollar, or die in the attempt. And so I 
find him here to-night, resting his tired head upon his 
arms in the old sugar-mill, for he is chief sugar-boiler 
of the Nakaona plantation, which is an old and safe 
one, and has for many years brought in fabulous sums 
of money to its owners — tons upon tons of sweetest 
sugar. 

The head-manager, a shrewd, wise, good-hearted 
man well into the fifties has had his ups and downs — 
his taste of the sea, his youth on the eastern shore as 



— 74 



well — his home beloved, his wreck — his dead ! he de- 
termines that the sailor captain shall have the vacant 
post which always commands a high salary on a well- 
to-do plantation. It is a difficult work; by night 
and by day, unceasing vigilance, skill and patience. 
Long hours' watch by night — hot hours' work by 
day! No money must be lost, no sugar go to waste 
for want of eyes or wakefulness ! 

But this is Christmas eve again, and two long years 
have passed since he sailed off so confident and full of 
hope — so sure of home and gain in a twelve-month ! 
" Never mind!" he says again, he will work for 
one year more here, and then he will go back to 
the snows and storms of his eastern shore! Back 
to home and love! Back to his father's life, the 
fishing craft! If needs must — to shipwreck and 
drowning, but surely back to love and home! One 
year longer (no more, he says) of heat, fire and steam 
— of sugar which is not sweet to the taste, nor honey 
in the mouth — another year of hardest, unwearying 
toil, and he will be gone! And as he lies therefor 
just a few minutes, thinking of the dear old home, the 
pretty church all trimmed and lighted to-night, the 
carols, the snow-balling, the happy Christmas cheer, 
his heart is very sore, and bitter thoughts will enter 
his mind, and he could almost curse the day when he 
sold his birthright, his staunch little vessel, for shares 
in a sugar plantation, and found himself slowly but 
surely losing his splendid health and courage in a 
sugar mill ! " All is not gold that glitters," neither is 
there wealth always in a plantation! 



— 75 — 

Ah ! my bonnie blue eyes is gone (sad to say, for 
what will become of the " boiling"?) to "Dorimo Hill." 
Hush ! he is sound asleep ! sound asleep, this Christmas 
eve, in the old mill, and sugar is forgotten by him ! 

But, listen to the Heavenly music! An angel is en- 
tering the dusty mill to-night, to do his weary work ! 
Softly she wafts about, a being of light and beautj^. 
White as the snow on his own hills at home are her 
garments, a rainbow-glory about her head — her hands 
upon the harp! Gently she draw r s the old curtain, to 
shut the moonlight from his brow and head, fanning 
him slowly with her wings the while when he grows 
restless, yet playing on and on that he may dream 
to-night to God's own music! 

" Are they not all ministering angels sent to minister 
to those who shall be heirs of salvation?" 

And thick and fast the visions from the skies are 
forming one after another in his over-taxed and weary 
brain. For the yield of sugar on this place, this season, 
is enormous, and boiling must not cease for him to 
rest ! Ah, no ! 

" For men must work, and women must weep, 
And the harbor-bar be moaning." 

He dreams of talking with his father again, a boy 
on the ship; of their suppers in the little cabin; of 
the rainy nights on deck, when they watch together 
for the "Light" near home. 

And then he dreams of his Alice, as a little girl, 
pelting him with snowballs on the way home from 



— 76 — 

school; and her merry laughter, when she sent his 
little cap a-flying; of the big snow man they built up 
together, a wonder to themselves ! 

And his dream rambles on, until he is back again 
to the sugar-cane, and looking off to the hills which 
skirt Kauai, he sees that they have changed to look 
like immense pyramids of whitest crystal sugar; 
that the houses, going up here and there, are being 
cut from it — that, as far as his eyes can reach or dis- 
cern, there is chimney after chimney, tall as a church 
spire, and mills where sugar is boiling! — that all 
Nature seems turning to sugar, and that mankind, at 
least on Hawaii, is fast going sugar-mad ! 

And when he questions the quiet and thoughtful 
manager, who has always been his kind and helpful 
friend and adviser, he tells him it is quite true that 
the process has been going on, surely but noiselessly 
for many months, but that he, being wrapped up in 
his engrossing mill work and his dreams of home, had 
failed to detect the change ! Dreams are made of such 
strange, unreasonable stuff, that it did not seem to 
him at all unnatural that the whole universe should 
turn to sugar ! But the angel was still there, playing 
her sweetest, lulling strains, " for they know no rest." 
And now he sees in the sky, baby, cherub faces, with 
black eyes, and blue and brown ; with sweet, smiling 
mouths and softest curly hair ; they are advancing 
in troops, and in twos and threes and singly, with 
bright stars in their foreheads, with tiny trumpets 
and harps, and pipes and viols in their hands, all 



— 77 — 

playing, boys and girls, their eyes dancing to the 
music ! 

Now and again he can catch the sound of child- 
ish voices. They are coming closer, head after head, 
peering into the mill from every window, and crowd- 
ing the doorways. 

He now sees larger forms and older faces ; into the 
mill they come, close up to the " boiling." All at 
once there is no longer a roof; it is lifted, and the 
whole sky is full of these angelic beings, host upon 
host ! The sides are gone ! and he is far out on an 
open plain, where there are flocks of sheep with their 
shepherds, all looking up into the sky, listening to the 
angel song — a Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good will toward men.' He awoke — the 
angel was gone — the music had ceased — the sugar was 
done ! It was to be his last Christmas on Hawaii ! 



III. 

The Holidays are past, the rainy season at the 
Islands is well over, indeed midsummer is almost 
upon them. 

The work at the mill, the heat of the climate to one 
not yet well used to it, has drawn largely upon the 
strength and courage of the sugar-boiler. The color 
is gone from his cheeks, his face is pallid, and the old 
energy of manner, the merry whistle and cheery 
laugh are not now intimate companions. Time, dis- 



— 78 — 

appointment, toil, lack of sleep, home-sickness — these, 
one and all together, are accomplishing a sad result! 

As it draws near to the time when in New England 
all nature puts on her richest tapestry dyes of golden 
browns, and hundred tints and shades of red and 
yellow in maple and in sumach, he begins to hear 
rumors of "Kapioanelani," that the season prom- 
ises great things for the new plantation — an un- 
heard-of yield. It is now confirmed and settled that 
it will, doubtless, pay large dividends in the future! 
The irrigation is complete and perfect, the shares have 
risen to such a height he can hardly ask too much and 
not find a purchaser ! 

The captain's money, his shares bought from the 
sale of his ship at Honolulu, have increased in value 
a hundred fold ! He is rich enough now, surely. He 
will retain one-third only of his interest for his dear 
mother during her life-time, he tells himself; the rest 
shall be sold at once to the highest bidder. He will 
make a rapid tour of the four more important islands; 
go around Kauai his present home; see Oahu again, 
and from there to Maui and to Hawaii, the largest of 
the group — giving its name to the kingdom — "The 
Kingdom of Hawaii." He will see the different 
plantations, the wonderful volcanoes, the magnificent 
valleys of Iao and Hanalei. He will gather native 
curios, and rare presents of Chinese, Japanese, Portu- 
guese and English make; native handwork in curi- 
ously woven mat, fan, hat, etc.; necklaces of tiny 
shells and beads, of carved kukuinuts; walking sticks 






— 79 — 

of rare woods, calabashes, with covers and without — 
one carved with the view of a grass hut on the shore, 
cocoanut trees, and a ship in the distance; cups, lava, 
"Pele's hair," leis of feathers, and the rest. 

By the latter part of the harvest month his plans 
are all perfected, his interest is sold in Kapioanelani, 
he has bid good-bye to friends, for he is one to make 
many, shaken hands for the last time with the dear 
manager, his best, true friend, and made him promise 
to be with him in his new home on the very next 
Fourth of July. 

He counts the hours, so earnest and eager is he to 
be free and off to sea once again; so sudden the 
change from weariness and toil and heat to thoughts 
of rest and home, that all is joy and music in his 
heart! The blood is once more working rapidly in 
his veins, and signs of returning color are in his 
countenance. There is now a great work before him 
in his old New England home, and with strength, 
and means and unselfish purpose my sailor-hero shall 
live to do it all ! 

" For men must work and women must weep, 
And the harbor-bar be moaning.'' 

He goes to look at "Kilauea" on the Mauna Loa 
Mountain, that pot of seething, boiling, crimson, 
liquid lava, of fire and flame, and he forgets to sleep 
until he has quit that region of Hawaii! He visits 
Kohola plantation, and stays over Sunday at the quite 
prosperous Mission with its very pretty church. 



He stays in the " Cave/' at Mauna Haleakala (House 
of the Sun), on Maui one night. Here the view is too 
glorious at morning and at night for my poor pen to 
make you see ! No painter could fix it on his canvas, 
no lavish wealth of words describe it! Here, a chrys- 
anthemum is found, in the crater, "the silver sword" 
as big as your head ; and here, are millions of fern. 

He cannot leave Honolulu until he goes to the 
wonderful Pali — a precipice five miles from the town, 
and which is worth a journey from England to see ! 
Neither will he miss going to the top of Punch-bowl, a 
quiet crater on the east, to get a view of the pretty 
emerald, bounded by the sea, with its coral reefs, and 
its waving, star-like crown of cocoanuts. 

Aloha, pretty Honolulu ! 

Last but not least by any means, he will go to the 
Bishop's College. Two exquisite maps were bought — 
the work of a half-caste, done in ink and water colors. 
A game of baseball was played by the seniors. On 
taking leave, a sum of money was placed in the 
master's hands to give the Iolanis a " treat " — and 
a half-holiday was begged for them. On leaving 
Honolulu for home, the following day, tw r o sets of 
bats and balls were sent to the college. A lot of toys, 
also, in the shape of tin sailors, ships, boats, Noah's 
arks, etc., were for the little folks. The two stout, 
brown horses, used in traveling were also sent up to 
the college, and an order for three barrels of " No. 1 
washed sugar ! " 

Days before Christmas, with his mother's help, the 






— 81 — 

Captain has studied and ordered plans for building, so 
soon as the spring shall open and the ground permit : 
Homes for aged, infirm and disabled seamen ; for 
widows, old and impoverished ; and for boys and girls 
made fatherless by the sea. Over the door of each 
Home the words " The Success," " Laus Deo." 

On Christmas eve the wedding is to be ; and for 
Christmas day all the children of the village are in- 
vited to a party and to a "tree!" Rejoicings are 
arranged for until Twelfth Night, that everybody, 
old and young, may be able to share. Teas, dinners, 
sleigh-rides, music, bonfires and skating! An hour 
before the time of the wedding the bridegroom sends 
in his choice gifts to his bonny, brown-eyed Alice. 

A small bouquet of lilies and maiden's hair fern, 
tied with a blue ribbon of his own buying ; a tiny 
prayer-book of leather, silver-bound and clasped, and 
with the inscription, " To my bride, Alice. Faithful 
and true. Christmas, 1890." An apple-blossom for 
her hair, fashioned from the pink lining of a rare 
shell, a brooch of old gold, in fashion of a ship, the 
sails of silk capable of being furled, and in tiny emer- 
eralds the words " The Success ;" at its masthead the 
Hawaiian flag ; and lastly, a bracelet of finest work- 
manship, to be worn on her left arm, with firm, strong 
padlock, heart-shaped, studded with diamonds and 
sapphires, and within a portrait of my success, my 
hero, John ! These w T ere the bridal presents from her 
king, save one, which now stood at the door — a small 
coupe, lined with leather of old gold, a span of brown 



— 82 — 

mares, and on the door a medallion in bronze, of a 
ship with sails spread, with " stars and stripes" float- 
ing in a brisk wind and putting out to sea. On her bow 
can be read, " The Alice." 

The bride is ready for church, and her lover goes to 
meet her to have a word, a look, and a kiss, before 
starting. She is in a robe and bonnet of softest velvet, 
white as the snow of to-day, and trimmed with swan's 
down. On her shoulders is a cape of ermine, lined 
with blue, the color of her lover's eyes ; her gloves and 
shoes are blue, trimmed too, with down. In her hair 
and on her neck and arm are his precious gifts, and 
in her hand the prayer-book and the lilies. 

What did she give to him? 

Did you say " A woman cannot keep a secret?" I 
will keep hers. But, let me whisper in your ear that 
he told her as they entered the carriage, " That no 
other gift on earth could have begun to equal it in his 
eyes, or suited him even half so well." 

Aloha, Hawaii ! Aloha nui ! 



THE MANGO. 



44|yjANGO-0-0-0! Please, some mango-o-o ! " 
1ZZ This cry can be heard from early to late 
summer in and about Honolulu, from the native boys, 
who tramp from place to place, wherever a mango 
tree can be seen. 

As these trees when full grown, are as large as oaks, 
it is not difficult to see them ! they are so high no 
one but a native can climb them, with immense 
crowns, and fruit enough to feed an army ! When 
the fruit is ripe it will drop from its own weight, a 
large one being " as heavy as a stone." In color 
they are of a rich, deep green, with a reddish cheek. 
The skin is thick and smooth, and can be pulled or 
stripped off, leaving exposed the deep yellow, golden, 
juicy fruit, which clings tightly to the large, coarse, 
white pit in color of a squash seed. This fruit is in 
season for several months, beginning in June, for 
while some on a tree are ripe, others are but just 
" coming on," and there is the new leaf to be seen, 
and the fruit ! It is little used for dessert, as it is a 
very uncomfortable and awkward fruit to handle. 
While green it can be made into sauce, and tastes 
not unlike green apples. When ripe, the proper 
way to enjoy mangoes, I know, is to take a dozen or 



— 84 — 

more, a big bowl of water, and a couple of towels, sit 
down composedly and complacently, with plenty of 
time at your elbow, and make a business of it. You 
can take a bite of one, and if you do not fancy the 
flavor (for no two have the same), you can try another. 
And when you have tried them all, while you may 
feel that you have made quite a pig of yourself, you 
will not have overeaten. They are so juicy, so light, 
and there is so little food in a single mango. But 
they are very tempting and delicious ! " I'll try one 
more," is apt to be the thought. They need to be 
fresh picked ; the fruit of to-day is not so desirable 
to-morrow r . The boys can be seen at two and three 
o'clock in the morning, going in and out, to pick up 
the fruit that has fallen during the night. 

In an ordinary sunshiny shower, and there may be 
twenty in a day, like to a gauze veil in appearance, 
you would not care much for an umbrella, for now it 
rains and now it doesn't; and in five minutes, even, 
a white dress is perfectly dry ! The natives, in a rain, 
run from tree to tree. 

Bananas can be had all the year round, and are 
about as cheap as anything on these islands ; two dozen 
for five cents ! The small, apple-flavored banana is 
a favorite. I doubt if any are exported. It is almost 
an insult to offer a banana to a native, so little do they 
care for them, and the foreigner, in a short time, seeks 
other and more tempting fruit. Limes are often plen- 
tiful and cheap. 

Oranges (Kona) and alligator pears can always com- 



— 85 — 

mand a good price. The latter are as appetizing as 
olives. Tamarinds and guavas, again, are very com- 
mon. The strawberries and melons, together with 
nearly all the vegetables, excepting cauliflower, celery 
and Irish potatoes, are raised by the Chinese in 
great quantities. The best potatoes are from New 
Zealand. Fresh salmon, poultry, vegetables and 
fruits are from California, on the arrival of every 
steamer. Canned, and bottled and sealed food, of all 
kinds, are imported, together with smoked and dried 
fish and meats. It is quite easy to keep house in Hono- 
lulu ; but far harder and more expensive in the out- 
lying districts, or at the other islands. At the same 
time, all is far more convenient now than a few years 
since. There are the plantations, the rice swamps, taro 
patches, Chinese vegetable gardens, pasture for wild cat- 
tle ; but a farm, a New England farm, for instance, oh ! 
no, not at the Hawaiian Islands, for a surety ! "Sugar!" 
" Sugar !" " Sugar plantation !" is the burden of every 
human cry, the refrain of every song, in this island 
kingdom ! And money is made, in sugar — and some- 
times, money is lost ! There is often a great stretch of 
country — hill and valley, and pasturage, between the 
plantations. One can ride for miles over roads and 
pasturage, and only infrequently pass a human habi- 
tation. Then it may be a Chinese place, or a native 
home, here and there ; possibly a foreigner's, with a 
native wife and children. 

All Nature will seem as beautiful to you as para- 
dise. So quiet, so peaceful, so warm, the clouds lying 



— 86 — 

low over the hills, the rich valleys, with their hun- 
dred shades of green, and the cattle wandering about, 
with now and then a look at the sea. 

The natives are "the soul of hospitality" and kind- 
ness — unselfishness, as well. But, unless you went pro- 
vided, or could eat poi (the native food, and it is an 
acquired taste), there are places on the Island of Ha- 
waii where you might almost starve before you could 
get away. Particularly, if a long rainstorm came on, 
and the streams and gullies were overflowed, and 
roads and gulches a good deal more than ankle deep 
in mud, bridges broken down, and fords unfordable ! 
while the horse you depended upon had suddenly 
turned lame ! Then, if you did not like poi, if the 
very thought of it was distasteful to you, you might 
learn to eat it, and be perfectly willing to accept the 
dried fish with it. Should you get benighted any- 
where on these islands, and come to a native house of 
one room, the natives will take their mats and lie out- 
side, and give you their " castle." May be, in the morn- 
ing they will find a little tea or coffee, and, making a 
fire on the ground, for they have a world of skill, will 
make you as nice a cup as you ever drank, and so unex- 
pected will it be to you that it will taste like ambrosial 
nectar ! They will, perchance, if you notice, unroll a 
paper which was tucked away, and give you a clean 
knife, fork and spoon. " There is much in the native " is 
a, proverb, I repeat! Young taro leaves (luau) is as fine 
a " green " as spinach or cabbage sprouts. Poi is made 
from the taro; and taro, boiled or baked, is as good as 



— 87 — 

the best Irish potato, and more strengthening, it is 
thought. It is very nice sliced, after boiling, and fried 
or toasted. The bread fruit, too, is very good — a hole 
made in the top and filled with salt, over night, then 
baked or boiled. One is enough for a small family. 
The mountain apple (ohia), of a purplish-red color and 
pointed end, spongy, white, and filled with sweetest 
juice, is often found very grateful to the taste in rid- 
ing. The milk from a fresh cocoanut will restore an 
over-tired man, and any native will climb a tree, go- 
ing up sixty feet, if necessary, to get them ! These 
trees are often from forty to sixty feet in height, and 
bear fruit for seventy years and more ! 

Some of the best fish is very scarce, for the natives 
are very fond of fish, and eat it as well as catch it ! 
Mullet is very good, quite plentiful, but never cheap. 
Beef, without ice, must be cooked the day of its kill- 
ing. Good mutton is not plentiful in Honolulu. 

Many of the natives are Roman Catholics. The 
splendor of the ritual, the lights, the colors are pleas- 
ing to them, and the music charms them. The priests 
are unselfish men, and win good will " and golden 
opinions from all sorts of people." They live, cer- 
tainly, in the plainest fashion, and will go by day or 
night to serve their converts, when sick or dying. 
There are also many Presbyterians on the Islands as 
well as members of the English Church. Kalakaua 
belonged to the latter; as does the Queen-dowager 
Kapiolani. 

Aloha, Hawaii ! Aloha nui ! 



THE LANTANA 



IT is difficult, often, to distinguish the half-caste 
from the full native, for they grow darker as they 
get older, and the foreign blood in them never seems 
to predominate, but may manifest itself prominently 
in some traits foreign to the fujl native ! All of them 
possess an unconscious grace, in manner and bearing. 
The national dress of the native woman, and it is 
much used by the foreigners, as well, is the "holoku." 
When cut and shaped with care and taste, and 
made of fine material — lawn, muslin, silk, even 
satin — it is as graceful and flowing a tea, or 
breakfast gown as can be fashioned. I have seen 
one in white, that was nothing less than an in- 
spiration — a poem ! They are often made with a loose, 
flowing demi-train, and tight waist in front; or the re- 
verse, tight in the back, with flowing front, trimmed 
with lace and ribbons. The natives, as a rule, go bare- 
footed. They will wear shoes to church, but, may be; 
take them off on the way home — always if a rain 
comes up! The darkey, when questioned about tak- 
ing off his hat in the rain, said, you know, that his 
hat was his own, but his head was his master's. They 
are their own masters, and can quickly explain to you 



— 89 — 

in Hawaiian, that "wet feet will not induce illness; 
but to walk in wet shoes, or to keep them on, will." 
But, wet or dry, they hate to put their feet in prison. 
Oh ! they are Nature's loveliest children all through 
and through and all the reftl harm they know has 
been taught to them, and brought to them, I am sure! 

They grow crazy over Fourth of July; don't pretend 
to go indoors for two nights and one day ! Singing 
and music and firecrackers and all, all three combined, 
every minute ! On Sundays and holidays they come 
in from the outlying valleys, troops of them, all on 
their own native horses, women riding " cavalier/' 
dashing over the roads, for they are reckless riders, 
with their hats and necks, men and women both, 
decked with lets of ferns, flowers and maile. 

They are barbaric in their choice of colors, and no 
figure can be too large, nor no red too red for their 
holokus and neckerchiefs. Their national dish is 
"pig and poi" and on all state occasions — births, deaths 
and marriages, and, indeed, every "great time," the 
black pig must walk in and die ! If they like you very 
much, they will give you one, always. I had, unfortu- 
nately, no place to keep them, or I might have competed 
with Chicago in the trade. We all know that a black 
cat is "good luck," but when I got to Hawaii, I found 
it was the " black pig/' and the black cat did not fare 
any better than the white. It was a shock to my 
nerves to have my childhood's belief swept away, and 
I did not take kindly to the black pig. But this I 
can say, that the perfection of art is used in cooking 



— 90 — 



ie, by the natives ! An oven is built in the ground, 
of stones, and the pig is done up in taro leaves, aud 
put in, and the place is filled up. I don't quite know 
the whole process. I know the result is all that can 
be desired in the way of a pig done brown ! 

Taro, like the calla, must have moisture and mud. 
The natives pull it up and sell it by the bunch — four 
for a quarter Qiapaha). One, when boiled or baked, 
would make a meal for three ; fine, firm, delicate and 
tasteless as a good potato ; very nutritious, and easily 
digested. From this the natives make their poi, which 
is a thin porridge, subject to fermentation. 

Europeans, as well as American and Asiatics, inter- 
marry with the Hawaiians. 

On King street, in Palace Square, one of the princi- 
pal streets of Honolulu, and about ten minutes' walk 
from the steamer's wharf, and five from the English 
Church and the Hawaiian Hotel, is the Palace, with its 
fine grounds. Opposite are the Government Build- 
ings, where Legislature holds its term. Here, too, is a 
fine museum, with a multitude of native curios and 
relics. In the grounds is a statute, in bronze, of Kam- 
ehameha I. 

From this point you can drive on to the sea, a dis- 
tance of four miles, lined with pretty houses the en- 
tire road. You will soon pass a native church built of 
coral formation, just beyond the Government Build- 
ings ; and the trees will often demand your attention. 
If it be a moonlight night, you may notice, if you are 
watchful, an old coral wall, a couple of miles before 






— 91 — 

you reach the sea, covered, loaded, with the night- 
blooming cereus. The effect is beautiful and artistic, 
at a little distance, but too near, they are coarse, pale 
and rank-looking, not like those under fine cultiva- 
tion. And this brings to my mind the lantana — 
man's dreaded foe, as hateful a one, and as hated as 
the "Canada thistle " of the north. In New England 
the lantana is found in hot-houses in quite small plants. 
The bloom is changeable in its color, pinks and yellows 
intermingled — sometimes white. This rough, strong 
shrub, with its many interlacing, wire-like branches 
of toughest, ugliest kind, and its mass, its cloud of 
color in heads somewhat like the red clover, will, 
where it once gets a foothold, an inch of ground sowed 
with its pernicious, deadly seed, not only spread an 
ell, a yard, but acres upon acres ; and so rapid and 
malignant is its growth, like to all other evil things, 
that it is almost impossible to uproot it. It takes so 
firm and determined a hold that " all the king's oxen 
and all the king's men " can hardly manage it. It 
saps the land, and literally makes a rich man poor ! 
At its worst it attains a height of four or five feet. It 
must be chopped down and the ground chopped up! 
It has been suggested that if its millions of lovely 
laughing blossoms could be used by the chemist, a fine 
perfume could be made. Very likely. I am sure it 
could supply a nation. But it would be a high treason" 
to ask an Islander to buy a bottle — and the man would 
be mobbed by the time " Lantana Perfume " was even 
suggested by him ! 



— 92 — 

Strange to say, some of the wild flowers are very 
pale, limp, colorless, and odorless. A wild convolvulus 
is sickly looking, and as pale as moonlight. You will 
see it on the sides of the hills, sometimes, but not pretty 
at all. It looks very homesick and unhappy. 

But most of the climbers and some of the bushes, 
as well as trees — the Poinciana Regia, for instance? 
where the pretty, delicate green of the leaves can 
hardly be seen, for the mass of scarlet — are truly 
superb, magnificent, in color. Then there is the pink 
Poinciana Regia, with changeable blossoms, the "Pride 
of India," with blossom that looks, at a distance, like 
the apple, and oh, so many, many others of beauty, in 
bush and tree; not to mention all the palms, banana, 
tamarind, mango, and countless more. 

Our lovely little annuals do not thrive under these 
trees, and must be sowed and resowed. So, many 
give them up, and look to the lilies, roses, geraniums 
and the flaming shrubs. To keep up a fine flower 
garden at the Islands is a world of care, and needs 
the presence, continually, of a gardener. 

Until within a very few years no one thought of 
locking a door on these islands. You could make your 
call at any hour in the day or evening, in your neigh- 
bor's parlor ; if no one was about you could rest, en- 
tertain yourself, play a tune on the piano, put your 
card down, and go. And you might go to a number 
of houses and find all the doors and windows open, 
certainly, never shut. If a native went in and wanted 
a spool of cotton, or any other trifle, and took it, no- 



— 93 — 

body cared — certainly not the native ! And for any- 
body else — why, everybody knew everybody, and that 
was the end of it. And outside of Honolulu to-day, 
there is very little of the lock and key. 

Aloha, Hawaii ! Aloha nui ! 



THE COCOANUT 



IT did sound very strange to one born in the land of 
the elm, the glorious maples and the majestic oak, to 
hear it remarked with perfect complacency and as- 
surance, that there was no tree so beautiful as the co- 
coanut, when seen on the shore from an incoming 
vessel ! But " we live and learn ;" and I lived to 
learn and to endorse the sentiment with all my heart ! 
At first, the very thought of such disloyalty to the tree 
of my childhood, the home of my birth — the beautiful 
and graceful elm, seemed almost to take away my 
breath! The tall, gaunt, branchless, boughless, uncom- 
panionable, selfish-looking tree ! But I came, in less 
time than a few years, to pass by elm, and " England's 
boast," the royal palm, and travelers' pride of India, 
and all other, to rejoice at, and take off my hat to, 
the cocoanut ! Yes, it does stand alone, often far away 
from all friends of its kind, with sky and sea only, one 
tree with its star-like crown of leaves and cluster of 
nuts ; and its great height of forty, fifty, sixty feet, 
perchance, and a century of age, or more, it may be, 
reaching and bending toward its friend, the sea ! Yes, 
it loves the shore and the sea. 

Again, a perfect fringe of them may be seen, or a 
group, as of one family, or a grove, even. Look ! 



— 95 — 

that tall one at this minute is eagerly nodding and 
waving its last farewell to the vessel you can see, as a 
mere speck, against the horizon. Ah, she was here in 
her youth as well — vigorous, strong, fresh and beauti- 
ful — glorying in hull, and mast, and spar, and sail, 
that could and would defy the world of waters, and 
come out victor through every storm ! She will boast 
no more, alas! Her timbers are sea- worn and un- 
worthy, her sails and spars are weak with long years 
of battling with wind and tempests. She will win 
port never again, but will go down in the next fierce 
and determined gale ! 

The cocoanuts say they, too, were young when first 
they saw their friend, the ship — the big white bird — 
skimming gayly before the breeze, in the gloriously 
beautiful morning of this rainbow-land. And that 
she, in her freshness and her joy made, with themselves, 
a part of the magnificent water view of coral reef and 
headland, of tree and ship, and sea, and sun and sky ! 
Fourscore of years, perhaps, since they sprang into 
life, with star-like crowns and perfect fruit and leaf. 
They have stood there on the shore, a landmark for 
the sailor, ever bending toward the sea they love so 
well, and seeming to beckon the ships on, and into port. 
Some of them have lost their crowns, old and battered, 
but still pointing, spire-like, upward and outward to 
the horizon ! Aloha nui ! thou perfect tree of the South 
Seas! 

In the times of the Chiefs he who cut down one must 
plant four. 



— 96 — 

The cocoanut is very useful to the Hawaiians in their 
plaiting and weaving of mats, hats, fans, etc. Their 
work in this respect is often very fine, artistic and skill- 
ful, and can command a good price. 

A chief would order a grass hut made by his de- 
pendents, and much weaving and other work would 
be exacted. When it was finished he would compel 
the poor maker to lie flat upon the top, and, going 
within, would throw his spear to the roof to prove 
that the work was weather-proof. Woe to the luckless 
builder if the spear did perforate the thatch ! He was 
then a victim to loose and slipshod weaving and plait- 
ing! 

That is the legend, but I never met with a native 
who had an ancestor killed in that way. Probably I 
did not ask the right family. 

Some few years ago a party was cast away on one of 
the smaller South Sea Islands, and for months sub- 
sisted on cocoanuts alone. When found they were in 
good health. 

How delicate and rich the nut is for cake, candy 
and puddings. And all agree w T ho know aught of 
India Curry that it is never a perfectly delicious curry, 
lacking this most-to-be-desired ingredient. How life- 
giving and restorative, too, the milk is from a fresh 
nut, only those can tell who live where they grow. 

Lying on the beach as the glorious moon of the 
tropics came up, for nowhere else does she present so 
heavenly a face, and looking landward through a 
grove of these magnificent trees, of many heights and 



— 97 — 

sizes, with their mammoth leaves and clusters of nuts, 
at the violet-tinted sky set with her gems of stars and 
planets ; looking first at them, then at the sea at my 
feet, rippling and shining in the light, was " fairy- 
land " indeed ! 

And now you know something of why I am in love 
with the cocoanut. 

"Aloha nui, thou perfect tree of the South 

Seas!" 



KOU AND THE COLT 



THE natives of Hawaii possess, to a marvelous de- 
gree, skill in managing both boats and horses. 
Patience is born in them, and with them, and to them! 
Never did I see a native manifest what we term im- 
patience, and irritability is, with them, an unknown 
quantity most certainly. 

A native boy, with a little stub of a pencil, and an 
old battered knife, would peg away until he made for 
himself a fine sharp point, and then would most con- 
tentedly write and erase — write and erase, until his 
work was as even as a die ! 

Strange to say they would insist upon the quality 
of their w r ork rather than the quantity, even where 
told to hasten! And w r hen tired, they would simply 
and coolly say, but in a most good-natured manner: 
" Too much work — too warm — some more to-morrow 
— no use — ma hoppe " (by and by.) 

If a boy was wanting a pencil "me lend!" "me, too 
lend!" could quickly be heard. Happy, generous, 
laughing, light-hearted children, full of merriment, 
boisterous, talkative as parrots, and noisy ever, except- 
ing when they are asleep. 

It was an unusually warm sultry afternoon, and I 



— 99 — 

was resting in my hammock, swung under the shade of 
a mammoth tree. We were so close to this most per- 
fect beach that I could see the grand rugged heads, 
Diamond andKoko, and hear the exquisite music of the 
surf as it slapped the shore so easily and gently 
with its white foam! Kou, an indolent, calm, good- 
natured, fine-looking native came walking leisurely 
into the place, with the same unconscious grace they 
all possess when not too old, and closely following at 
his heels, the prettiest thing of a colt. It pranced 
about the paddock, giving me a sly look as much as to 
say, " Why are you here? This is the domain for me 
to exercise in. I am Pout, the handsome prince, of 
whom you must have been told, or why are you here 
watching me?" He was to be broken to saddle for the 
first time that day. The man, Kou, walked quietly 
about, whistling, singing, patting the colt — showing 
him the saddle-cloth, moving and fixing the saddle 
over and over, working and cajoling for an hour or two 
to convince his Royal Highness that, in this matter 
of riding, there was to be no under-hand, nor sleight- 
of-hand — no manoeuvreing, but all plain, open and 
above-board with him ! Hours, or a half-day seemed 
of no importance! Time was nothing to Kou\ All 
was perfect deliberation. He was not there to frighten 
a timid child out of learning! I knew he was akamai 
(just the one) and I knew the saddle would go on — and 
go on it did. And while the colt was very shy it had full 
faith in its master, and he finally rode out of the field 
on its back shouting Aloha! to me and soon was lost to 



— 100 



view on the beach! He conquered the animal simply 
by calming his own spirit; and he led up to it step by 
step, gently, firmly and patiently, as a wise and loving 
parent leads on an irritable and too sensitive child. 



THE NATIVE WOMAN. 



THE word Aloha, for instance, must stand for love, 
affection, gratitude, thanks, kindness, and many 
more things, for the native tongue is a very poor one. 

Every word ends with a vowel, and the language is 
very musical to the ear — not unlike the Italian. 

There are but four notes to their music, but so weird, 
strange and pleasing it is, that on first hearing it one 
would wish to listen to it for hours ! A piece of board, 
with a few strings across it (taro-patch fiddle), or a 
guitar, a gay holoku of red or green, a lei of flowers 
on hat of her own plaiting, and another around the 
neck, a grass hut on the beach, or in the valley, the 
taro patch at hand, poi in the calabash, fish drying on 
the roof, a horse in the little paddock, and her 
majesty — the native woman — need take no thought 
for the morrow — nor will she ! When Sunday comes 
she will go to church, or meeting, unless any of her 
friends or relatives (and " cousins " among the natives 
are legion) are going to have a feast, or luau, in 
honor of a birthday, wedding-day, the visit of a friend 
from one of the other Islands, or out of respect to the 
departed; then she will most certainly not attend 
church, nor meeting, but will go miles padding over 



— 102 — 

the road, barefooted, long before sunrise (for the 
natives are very early risers), to reach that friend's 
house or "place." 

A luau means a pig roasted, chicken, fish and poi- 
Of course, for royalty, one can be made very elaborate. 
The table is on the grass, and spread with taro leaves. 
The food is handled with the fingers. 

A pig, fish or chicken, wrapped in taro leaves and 
baked, native form, in an oven made in the ground, of 
heated stones, etc., is a rich delicacy, often to be de- 
sired. Nothing could be better or tenderer in the way 
of dining. " There is a great deal in the native," is a 
proverb I delight to quote, for its perfect truthfulness. 
After my experience of a luau I could not blame the 
natives for not wishing to miss one, even on Sunday ! 

The weaving of garlands, of flowers and ferns, by the 
native women is very ingenious and beautiful. They 
make quite a trade of it on all fair days, but more es- 
pecially on " steamer day," when steamers are leaving 
for the Coast or Colonies. This is the high-day — the 
harvest — of the native woman. 

They w T ill come in from the valleys very early, with 
their baskets of flowers, and sitting on their mats on 
the sidewalk of one of the principal thoroughfares 
leading to the wharves, will make their leis to sell to 
the passer-by; and every one, men as well as women, 
is expected to wear this pretty native chain. 

A perfect tier of gaudy flowers is often seen on a 
man's neck, making him look ridiculous, ludicrous 
and sheepish. But when we are in Hawaii, we must 



— 103 — 

do as the Hawaiians do, I suppose. And they, cer- 
tainly, do lets-wearing very brown! 

In their weaving and plaiting of mats, fans, hats 
and other articles, the palm, banana, fern and other 
plants used, are prepared with great care for this most 
ingenious work. A mat woven of narrow strips, white, 
firm, smooth as satin and of pretty pattern, three yards 
square, is well worth forty dollars. The Panama hat 
cannot exceed in beauty and fineness some done by 
these natives. Oh, they are very deft in all this kind 
of work — it is their birthright. 

In the mountains there is a small blackbird, with 
one tiny yellow feather under its wing. This bird is 
snared by the natives, the feather plucked and the 
bird freed. But there are close imitations of dyed 
feathers. I know that where a native has been 
employed to remake a necklace of these valuable feath- 
ers, she would steal some of them, concealing them in 
her mouth ! And it is not, now, every native who can 
do this kind of weaving or netting. A cloak of his 
late Majesty, King Kalakaua, of these feathers, is 
worth one hundred thousand dollars, and has come 
down as an heirloom — a net of priceless, golden 
feathers ! The natives are not thieves by any manner 
of means ; they are kind, generous, hospitable, gentle, 
easy, happy-going people, fond of you, it may be, fond 
of music, flowers, song; fond of color, light and 
laughter ; fond of poi — and of Hawaii ! But if they 
enter your " place " (and such a thing as locks and 
keys, or bolts and bars to houses was unknown until 



— 104 — 

within a few years, until communication become so fre- 
quent between the Colonies, the Coast and the Islands), 
and see for instance, a plenty of thread in your work- 
basket, and they happen to want a little, they will 
take a little, as a matter of course ; and if you are 
there and offer them a part of it, they will take it as 
" a matter of course " ! " It's all in the family," that's 
what they mean. And you, finally, come to see things 
with their eyes. 

The Islanders, to a great extent, not so much now as 
in former years, of course, have been dependent upon 
themselves for amusements and entertainments; and 
great attention has been paid to music, so that there 
are really many excellent musicians living there. 
When a concert or an opera is given in Honolulu you 
may be sure of a treat — not an amateur affair, but a 
finished and artistic performance. The proceeds are 
always devoted to charity. Many of the " homes " are 
beautiful — the houses are built as light and airy as 
possible, with wide verandas, and great regard is paid 
to dainty and simple and cool-looking furnishing — 
muslin hangings, bare floors and mats, easy, light and 
comfortable chairs and lounges of wicker or cane, with 
pretty lamps and pictures, open doors and windows, a 
garden of palms, ferns and flowers, and you see at 
once how the foreigner lives in Hawaii ! 



LELEA 



1^ HOUSE was rented of Lelea, & native woman 
J~± She was then a splendid type of her race, tall, 
well-formed, strong, with a quantity of glossy black 
hair, eyes brilliant, and clear brown skin. She was a 
woman of more than ordinary intellect, far-seeing, 
shrewd, honest and straight-forward in all her deal- 
ings. I was led to think, the more I saw of her, that 
she had the blood of all the Kamehamehas in her 
veins! Her manners and bearing would not have 
shamed a duchess. 

When I knew her (she is now dead) she was very sad 
and anxious and would often talk to me of her troubles. 
Her first husband was a white man, termed at the 
Islands " foreigners," who left her at his death quite a 
fine property but who was wise enough to tie it up in 
such a manner it could be for her use during her life- 
time, but at her death, must revert to his relatives at 
home. A second husband had, of course, come on the 
scene, a full native like herself, but much younger. 
When Brown found he could not get hold of any of 
her wealth, he became very dissipated and abusive to 
"my lady," and succeeded I am sorry to say in making 
her very wretched. 

However, she proved a very faithful and kind land- 



— 106 — 

lady. She promised that the large paddock should be 
kept tidy and clean, and as there were many fine trees, 
and the leaves were continually falling, more or less? 
it involved a good deal of work. One day of every 
week, at least, must be given to the sweeping of th,e 
grass; and when she had this done, the whole place 
was like a smooth velvet carpet of richest, softest 
green ! A bonfire was then made and the trash burned 
up. Not a dead leaf could be found on that place 
when she had done ! 

As I have said, the natives never like to go indoors 
on moonlight nights. I would awaken to some noise 
in the grounds and looking through the shutters of 
my blind doors, would see my earnest and faithful 
Lelea sweeping and gathering up the leaves by the 
light of a late moon. Like to many w r hite people, 
trouble had seemed to summon to her side the demon, 
Restlessness, for she never could be still. She had 
lost, forever, the repose and indolence of her race! I 
pitied her. She manifested (why, I failed to compre- 
hend) great affection for her recreant lazy lord! Often 
I would find a bundle of oranges, or a choice fish left 
on my veranda to show her Aloha for me. 

My poor, true, noble-hearted Lelea ! 



PONTO, THE VAGABOND 



IN this large inclosure were to be seen mango, tama- 
rind, pride of India, royal palm, and the traveler's, 
together with many others; not omitting to mention 
by itself, the wonderful and much-loved, and deser- 
vedly-loved, cocoanut tree; which, by some unhappy 
mischance, I could but think, was growing far away 
from any beach or shore — miles inland, in this place 
of mine. 

The cocoanut is a child of the sea, and never looks 
comfortable and happy but where it can see the face of 
its friend ! 

In the middle of these grounds was a circular mound 
of that exquisite green, such as is seen nowhere but 
in tropical climates. In the middle of this mound a 
deep pond, stone-lined and curbed; and a fountain, 
where the water was plentiful, and ever cool and fresh ! 
Above the first basin was a smaller one, which over- 
flowed, when the fountain was playing, into the larger 
one beneath. A crowd of doves frequented this pond 
for their daily ablutions. I wish I knew that all little 
boys were so happy in having their faces washed, and 
taking their bath, as were these lovely feathered 
children! I could not discover that there was actually 
any quarreling among them; but, in watching them 



— 108 — 

closely, I seemed to see some selfishness. When they 
came at nightfall, after an unusually warm day, I no- 
ticed that, in their eagerness, the big ones took the lead? 
and pushed the little ones off the edge of the basin! 
I would set the fountain gently running — not to scare 
them off — and they would fly in little groups, on to the 
upper basin, where the water would fall on them. 
There they would walk and prance about, round and 
round, picking and shaking, and cooing, and washing, 
until each feather was in full-dress and party order! 
They were of all sizes and colors. Never have I seen 
such exquisite white ones anywhere, not even in 
Venice. Oh, they were beauties! 

But it was not for the doves, I cared the most — 
happy, jolly, rollicking dears that they were; and 
much as I loved them, and welcome as they were to 
share the coolness, and the water of the pond and the 
fountain; and glad as I was when they came, and 
sorry as I felt when their daily bath was over! No, 
it was not for them my sympathy went out, nor in 
them that my interest specially centered ! They were 
well fed, and housed, and cared for and owned ! Could 
I not see their neat little cotes, far over the way? 
among the cool, shady trees in a flower garden! Ah, 
yes! they had many friends, and lovers, and com- 
panions, for were they not choice birds at that — many 
of rare and expensive breeds, tumblers, and crowns, 
and crests, etc. No, no ! They were not the only 
living things that wandered into my premises, for 
there was other two-footed life, besides them, that 



— 109 — 

came ! and they came with no fine plumage, and no 
coquetry! They came at all times of the day, and 
from the small hours of the morning, if there was 
a late moon — indeed, I could look for them any time 
in the night, if there was a wind; for then, they knew, 
the ground would be strewed with mangoes. 

" Mango-o-o ! Please, some mango — mango-o-o ! " 
This appealing cry from the throats of little brownies, 
can be heard from sunrise until after sunset, during 
many months, for it is the fruit of which the natives 
are the most fond ! 

The mango trees are often colossal in size, forty 
and fifty feet in height with immense crowns 
loaded with fruit, hanging (literally enough to feed 
an army) in strong, heavy, pendant clusters. A 
perfect mango is as large as a full-sized Bartlett 
pear. It is delicious, and of many flavors, no two 
seeming to taste exactly the same. When the new^ 
leaves are coming they take the beautiful shades and 
tints of Autumn leaves in New England. Nature, dis- 
playing the same colors in living as in dying! When 
this fruit is ripe, or when there is a wind, it is thud, 
thud! Falling from so great a height it is cracked 
and mashed often more or less; and with the heat is 
soon sour, so that the natives are alw T ays quite welcome 
to gather it up. No one but the natives can mount the 
cocoanut and other high trees! and they test the 
strength of a branch as they go on and rarely make a 
mistake or get a fall. They will go up a mango tree 
and to the outmost limbs like little monkeys. This 



— 110 — 

fruit is almost their only food during the season, so 
fond are they of it. 

But it is an insult to offer a banana to a native so 
little do they care for them. And this means too the 
perfect, firm, golden bunch with no suspicion of black! 

Neither were these little natives who had access to 
my mangoes homeless, or friendless or poor by 
any manner of means! In their own modes, and 
fashions of living, they are nature's richest, happiest 
children! They sing and dance, and swim and ride. 
They love the moonlight; they will not sleep when the 
silver queen of night visits them. They revel in the 
sunshine, it is never too warm for them ! For then 
they rest and lie under the trees, or go into the surf. 
They love the rain and laugh and shout and run 
from tree to tree where the foliage is so dense that not 
a drop can find its way through! They love their 
friends and they love Hawaii ! 

They were welcome to share my fruit to drink of 
my pretty fountain. I liked their brown faces and 
laughing eyes. But when their pockets and hats were 
full of mangoes they would shout Aloha and be off for 
their own homes! They liked what I had to give, but 
with it all they were free and independent. I was not 
their only friend by scores! 

The tamarinds, too, drop — hundreds of dry brittle 
pods, thickly strewing the ground with the slightest 
rustle of a wind. They are a clean, light, pretty 
brown, as easily broken as a peanut shell, and con- 
taining in the tiny canoe three or four seeds covered 



— Ill — 

with rich sweet-and-sour jam held together by long 
fibres they too covered with the rich filling! A most 
perfect little vessel of preserve! A delicious drink was 
made by pouring on to them boiling water, letting it 
cool, and then straining it — adding loaf sugar to the 
taste. 

"Who else came to visit my garden besides the 
doves and the brownies?" 

Well, little Portuguese girls came, expressly for my 
tamarinds; little maidens from the far-off Azores, 
whose fathers had come to work on the sugar-planta- 
tions and who in time had drifted back to the cap- 
ital — Honolulu! They hired a little plot of land — 
put up their shanties- — planted their squash, and 
melon seeds, and grape vines, and a few marigolds — 
kept hens and goats, opened their little shops, their 
wives taking in washing, and in their thrifty, hard- 
working ways, were soon able to accumulate money ! 

These children were pretty little dark-eyed things 
with a wealth of soft brown hair in long braids down 
their backs. Courteous, as little Spanish grandees, 
in their manners; and on a Sunday or a fete-day, 
very gaily dressed in gaudy colors. 

They would not hesitate to pick up a fine mango, 
if they saw one ; but their mission in coming so often 
to see me was — the tamarind trees! "The nice lady 
who lets us fill our aprons with tamarinds," little 
Felicia tells little Pedro! "Good-night and thank 
you, ma'am ! " And they too are gone ! 

But it was my poor, despised, deserted, friendless, 



— 112 — 

vagabond dog — my four-footed pensioner ! owned by 
nobody and disowned by everybody — my poor, down- 
fallen, shabby, mangy, hungry-looking Newfoundland ! 
My eager, over-anxious, worried-looking brute ! It- 
was for him my heart w^ent out! And I resolved to 
be his true friend until I should see him in better 
condition again ! 

I christened him Ponto for I discovered he had lost 
his name so far as I could recollect such things, and 
would not come to me, call w f hat I might ! So as I 
say I gave him at once a pretty name ! And to make 
him try to recollect it, I gave him a nice bone with it. 

When first I saw him, I was sitting at night-fall 
(which is a very beautiful time at the Islands you 
must know — all nature seems then to be going to 
dreamland, so quiet is it — perfect repose) on the 
veranda and I was quite startled in seeing this big, 
unkempt, untidy, collarless, gaunt, big-eyed dog rush 
into my place his head up and staring about from 
tree to house and then to pond in a most expectant 
manner! He gave one bound toward the w r ater and 
greedily lapped his fill. Then quietly and shame- 
facedly, on seeing me, shambled along in the direction 
of the cook-house; and finally, left the yard, disap- 
pointed and disconsolate-looking ! It was closed and 
not a bone to be seen ! 

In a day or two he came again at the same time, 
and place; and seeming surprised to find the pond 
still there he took another drink! I spoke to him 
this time, in cheerful tones, and told him that he w r as 



— 113 — 

welcome to a swim in the cool water as well for he 
looked very warm and tired, and I really wished he 
would take a bath. His coat, which had not been cut 
nor trimmed for many a day, looked so dusty and 
rough ! A bone was awaiting his coming, for I knew 
he would scent that basin of water again ! 

Dogs are not so plentiful in Honolulu ! He gained 
a little confidence, with the sound of my voice, and 
gradually looked about the garden. Finally he dis- 
covered the bone and gave one quick sharp bark, as 
thanks, before he picked it up ! 

He was not a greedy dog at all; he was a thorough- 
bred, and had been well-trained. May be his master 
went to the Coast or to the Colonies, and left him 
behind with a friend, or gave him away! Likely he 
was dead ! 

The climate does not favor animals, unless they 
have good care. The sun spoils their hair and they 
get to look, often, very shabby. He took his bone 
under a big tree and after a while I saw him bury 
it, and depart for the night. Day after day he came; 
and finally with petting, and feeding, and coaxing, 
he strayed away no more but with a new and hand- 
some collar, became my own dog and protector — 
Ponto. 

You may have read that beautiful legend of the 
Blessed Saviour, who came one night to the market- 
place of the city with some of his disciples, and 
while they went to prepare the supper, he mingled 
with the crowd gathered about a dead dog. He lis- 



— 114 — 

tenecl to their heartless and cruel taunts: "Good 
enough for it, miserable cur!" " Look at its hangdog 
face," said another. " Kick it out of sight ! " said a 
third. But God the Saviour who created all things, 
quietly said, " Pearls could not equal the whiteness of 
its teeth ! " 

" He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast ; 
He prayeth best who loveth best 

All things both great and small. 
For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all." 



MAIOLA 



(( JOEING prayed to death." 

JLJ Among the many superstitions of these most su- 
perstitious people — the natives, are many quaint and 
harmless ones — many too like to our own (and doubt- 
less learned or caught from the early missionaries 
and others) foolish and ludicrous; and not a few of 
their own — Hawaiian-born and bred, that are not only 
dreadful, but positively terrible in their significance ! 

It is not for me to say how far or how fast mind acts 
and reacts upon mind, w 7 hen primed and loaded with 
an eager, greedy desire to destroy, for instance, some 
hated, hunted and doomed victim! 

A certain number, a secret conclave, will " pray 
Maiola to death" — and certain it is that the Maiola 
sometimes dies! Maiola I knew very well and saw 
him almost daily for a few years; he was one of the 
very finest-looking of his race — tall, well-formed, 
handsome, and strong and healthy, for anything I 
could see to the contrary. Suddenly he began to fail 
in strength and in spirits as well, went to another 
island for a change — came back again, growing all the 
while, month after month, weaker, more helpless and 
more dispirited — lying all day in his hut doing 



— 116 — 

nothing. When the natives were questioned they 
would look at one another, glance following glance 
in quick succession — he was being prayed to death 
— so they evidently believed! That was simply all, 
and all there was about it; his people would do 
what they could, all they could; but medicines, 
doctors, hospitals were to their minds all "no use." He 
was " being prayed to death" — and die he must, and 
die he did! To my mind he simply took a violent 
cold as the natives do — very susceptible to a chill — 
neglected it, would not go to the hospital ("Queen 
Emma's Hospital," which is very well managed), 
asthma followed, quick consumption, dropsy, and the 
poor fellow paid the last debt! "Maiola is dead." And 
for one night, and a small part of a day only (in this 
climate), may we his relatives sing our weird, un- 
earthly meles in his praise — telling in odd, plaintive 
chant his good deeds and noble qualities; send for all 
his friends and ours to come and mourn and sing and 
wail with and for us; cry and laugh, and smoke (pass- 
ing the pipe around from mouth to mouth), and eat 
fish andpoi; then we will give him Christian burial, 
cover his grave with leis and blossoms, and come away 
content that all is well with Maiola. 



MOLOKAI AND FATHER DAMIEN. 



44T 1 ET your light so shine before men, that they 
JL/ may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." 

Molokai, Molokai ! how shall I write of thee, love- 
liest prison, hospital and tomb — the dreaded and 
shunned home of the leper! Is Molokai like the other 
islands of the chain ? As like to them as one brother 
is to another where they come of the same parents- 
There are slight differences in the features and com- 
plexion of the different islands, but not enough for any 
confusion as to what family they belong. Molokai is 
said to be one of the very most beautiful of the group. 
And while the lepers can have the perfect freedom 
of all-out-o'doors — the sunshine and the air, they are 
as much in prison and as securely as if behind 
granite walls and iron bars! Oh, yes! And this is 
" wise and merciful and just." Is there a leper in Hono- 
lulu or elsewhere he must go out under cover of the 
night, and even then he is more than liable to arrest. 
If it be known that any are in hiding far up in the 
valleys or elsewhere, detectives are sent to search them 
out. And this is " wise and merciful and just." Great 
care is taken to provide for these afflicted ones — men, 



— 118 — 

women and children — yes, often very "little ones" — 
mere babies, when the destroyer marks them for his 
own ! They are Hawaii's wards — these poor sick chil- 
dren — and well and nobly does she look out for them, 
nor are they ever forgotten or neglected. Their rations 
are plentiful and good; there is no stint of food nor 
clothing. Water is laid on all over the place, and 
nursing and medicine, and prayers and priest are 
theirs. They are never overlooked at Christmas nor 
Thanksgiving-time and even Fourth of July brings 
for them as well as for others a noisy joy! 

By some savants the disease is not thought to be con- 
tagious, in the ordinary sense of that term — as measles 
or whooping-cough ; but if a "Sister" or a "Brother '' 
or a priest goes to Molokai for life, to "lose his life 
that he may find it," he or she must expect, in time, to 
become a victim too, to this appalling disease. And 
should they escape, it would be in the same unaccount- 
able manner that one escapes when in the midst of 
cholera or yellow fever and comes out unharmed. 

And Father Damien, what shall I say of thee, thou 
Saint in Paradise ! 

It was foolhardy, unwise and reckless, a tempting 
of Providence — a playing with edge tools, if, as has 
been said of thee, thou didst take a cup from a leper's 
hand to drink — the pipe from a leper's mouth to 
smoke ! But, thou wast " wise unto salvation " — loving, 
brotherly and Christ-like, wherein thou didst through 
the long, lonely years of thy banishment from home 
and country, and kith and kin, nurse and help and 



— 119 — . 

pray for thy children, ministering to them in their 
supreme hours of agony — and even shrouding them 
often for the grave ! 

On the coast of France, near Calais, is a light-house. 

Some one said to the keeper in charge, " What if your 
light should go out." 

" It never shall, sir, it never shall ! Oh, when I look 
out, at night, and see the ships from India, from Aus- 
tralia, from America and from other places, I feel as if 
the eyes of the whole world were upon my light. Oh, 
it shall never go out ! " 




MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED. 



Who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty ? 

—John Milton. 

44 7TYITH strongest, brightest sunshine come 

KXJ deepest shadows, ever! Are there no shadows 
seen or known in your much-loved Hawaii ? 

"Is it all rainbow, rich skies of fairest white and 
truest blue? Is naught engendered there but kindest 
brotherly love, the help of true unselfish friendship, 
unwearied and untiring Christian charity — in the 
Church, in affairs of State, in home and social life ? 
Is all as fair within as nature is, without? 

" Does Man lose all that is self-seeking, ambitious 
and grasping, wherein it would wrong and wound, yea, 
ruin his neighbor's work or home, or fame or for- 
tune? Is there, I ask you, no deception, hypocrisy, 
unfairness, entire and whosesale lack of truth, to be 
known, in this ' little kingdom by the sea.' Are there 
no masks worn, no hearts broken ? Is shame, wicked- 
ness, crime a form never seen in home, nor shop, nor 
street?" What would you have me to say, my friend 
inquisitive, more than I have already written? 

When a guest comes to see us, if we are well-to-do — 
we lead them from the very door — we go to the carriage 
to greet and welcome to our home the friend we love* 



— 121 — 

We take them through the vestibule and hall, however 
grand and splendid these may be, into the drawing- 
room, the dainty reception-room ! We hasten to swing 
wdde the doors of library, conservatory and ante-rooms 
for their more perfect freedom and enjoyment — we 
invite them soon to the heart of our home, our family- 
table — we offer to them our favorite and well-tried 
dishes; and we, virtually, insist that they shall, for the 
time of their stay, make our home their home to all 
intents and purposes. 

We strive to keep far out of sight, out of their minds 
at least, the daily ordering of our house. We deter- 
mine that they shall ride and drive, eat and drink, 
sleep and rest, and enjoy each day better than its 
fellow that preceded it ! 

We will not repeat to them — no, indeed ! — our 
mental cares and anxieties, even if we own such ; but, 
will gladly suggest a help or remedy, for what they 
may choose to confide to us! You say, "You know 
that there is a skeleton in every family ! It is full- 
grown, perfect, w T hite, shining, smooth and brittle, like 
to pipe-clay, somewhat ! — kept locked up, always, in a 
closet of its own ! " 

Mystery upon mystery ! 

Then, I have never had the key handed me; nor 
seen the door open ; and I have often, in visiting, been 
up to the observatory or look-out ! 

To be frank, my questioner, as you describe the 
secret, I should wish to decline visiting the ghastly 
museum; and hope that the key would ever get mis- 
laid, while I was an inmate of the dwelling. 



— 122 — 

In every well-ordered large family there should be, 
I am sure, an attempt made to keep one dark room or 
store-closet in the middle of the house (on the floor 
with the library and dining-room if possible); a room 
where the too-glaring light of day cannot get down 
into it from above nor climb up into it from below! 
A room set apart entirely for family jars, jams, pre- 
serves, and pickles of all sorts, of homemake and of 
foreign importation! Nuts hard to crack and other- 
wise; old cheese well-brandied, crocks of olives, 
Malaga raisins, Messina oranges, Sicily lemons, Smyrna 
figs, coffee from Kona and Java and Mocha, choice 
Young Hyson, Souchong and Imperial, silver boxes of 
seed-cake, biscuits, etc., cases, baskets, jugs, bottles, 
demijohns, and what more shall I say? The fragrance 
of such a store-room is always as delightful as a dairy 
filled with rich butter, and where the cows have waded 
in white clover! 

There are the peculiar conditions belonging always 
to an island life, and here, in Hawaii, most intricate 
and perplexing. 

The relation of the Native to the Foreigner and 
vice versa — the half-caste, the American, English, 
German, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Japanese, Chinese 
and the rest, resident in these islands of mid-ocean, 
with their separate but determined interests; the won- 
derful climate and productions; the immense sugar 
interests; the " great expectations;" the court; the 
social, and home and plantation life; the amusements 
and recreations; the schools; the different religious 



— 123 — 

beliefs; the constant coming and going of war-vessels 
and steamers; merchant ships and whalers; with all 
the inter-island craft; all together supplying a rich 
and varied theme for the writer. 

Aloha! Hawaii nei. 







A HAWAIIAN DISCOURSE ON BREAD 
AND WINE. 



4 'And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it 
was very good." Genesis, i, 31. 

"And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and 
wine; and he was the priest of the Most High God." Genesis, 
xiv, 18. 

THE brown man — the poor native — was not (like to 
his poor brother, the red man, the much-to-be- 
pitied and to-be-helped Indian), good stuff out of 
which to make the drunkard. He had lived mostly 
on poi and fish; he had not followed the chase nor 
eaten of the spoil. And to-day, even, the Hawaiian 
cannot be said to covet nor desire the food or drink of 
the European. But with the white man there came 
(I regret to say) rum; and with the yellow man there 
came (worse yet) opium. In this Hawaii, this richest 
chain of seven gems, in its chief, even in its capital 
city, its " pretty little Honolulu," is to be seen door 
after door wide open, with tempting array of glass 
and bottle, and strains of music are to be heard within 
to lure the native to quick destruction ! 

Again, all through and over this country is to be 
found in choicest and most easily-to-be-got-at spots, 



— 125 — 

the childlike and bland John, with his neat, compact, 
tidy little shop, where can be found colored necker- 
chiefs of brightest, most radiant dye, calico, spurs, 
saddles, scissors, beads, brass jewelry, sweet cakes, etc. 
(offered to tempt and gratify the precise wants of the 
native), together with fire-water and opium (sub rosa). 
This is the one fiend portrait I dare not cover. 

" 'Tis true 'tis pity; and pity 'tis 'tis true." 

All this evil is to the native an acquired taste — not 
to the manner born ! Certainly there is the native 
liquor, but it is not alwaj r s made, nor always attaina- 
ble, nor in common use — it does not flow like water, 
on every road-side at a Mnne-kinne a glass ! 

The pure sweet heart of the wheat — the blood of the 
grape — types of man's spiritual food, his souPs refresh- 
ment in the journey of life. Bread and wine — sweet 
bread, pure wine — his material food, his staff and stim- 
ulant ! When the Blessed Saviour turned sixty gal- 
lons of water into wine at the wedding feast he meant 
there should be no stint. When He fed the multitude 
there was enough and to spare! God makes no mis- 
takes. There is wheat enough to feed His children, 
and hillsides enough in Tropics and in Temperates to 
add the wine. God never meant there should be hun- 
ger or thirst — spiritual or physical. He is still multi- 
plying the bread, still willing to feed the multitude — 
still turning water into wine. " I am the true vine, 
and my Father is the husbandman." Many climbers, 
but one vine! Good bread (as a rule) is an unknown 



— 126 — 

quantity, so to speak, at the Islands. Fine, rich, home- 
made bread, with a heart in it, is very rare, excep- 
tional. However, I did see it when living in the pur- 
ple, on certain state occasions, or royal visits. Never 
mind where. I found good bread — in spots. One 
trouble is, to make good bread in these warm climates 
is a great care, you can readily understand ; and any 
extra work there, is a burden against which cook and 
housekeeper rebel. And so baker's bread slips into 
the household and keeps undisputed sway. And such 
bread ! gracious me ! It would be sacrilege, desecra- 
tion, vandalism to compare it kindly to the delicious 
wheaten loaf of high civilization, and I plead — not 
guilty ! The little wizen-faced, chalky, chaffy affair ! 
" No use," as the natives say. 

I am, indeed, in love with the poet who wrote, 
summed up, all of man's earthly need, in three lines : 

•' A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, 
And thou, singing beside me — 
And wilderness were paradise enow." 

Food, drink and companionship — the simple needs 
of life ! 

The old saying that "good flour is bread half made" 
would hold true to a certain extent, even in that 
climate, if used. But much of it is very inferior in 
quality. If bread be the staff of life, then the health 
and strength of a community depends more or less 
upon the quality eaten. 

" And his disciples say unto him, Whence should 



— 127 — 

we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so 
great a multitude?" And Jesus saith unto them, How 
many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a 
few little fishes. 

And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and 
gave thanks, and break them, and gave to his disci- 
ples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they 
did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the 
broken meat that was left seven baskets full. St. 
Matthew, xv, 33. 

"And they did all eat, and were filled. And they 
took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of 
the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were 
about five thousand men." St. Mark, vi, 42. 

" And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now 
there was much grass in the place. 

So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 

And Jesus took the loaves ; and when he had given 
thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disci- 
ples to them that were set down ; and likewise of the 
fishes as much as they would. 

When they were filled, he said unto his disciples^ 
Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be 
lost. 

Therefore they gathered them together, and filled 
twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley 
loaves, wdiich remained over and above unto them that 
had eaten. 

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle 
that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet 
that should come into the world." St. John, vi, 10. 



— 128 — 

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life ; 
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that 
believeth on me shall never thirst. 

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, 
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 

Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath 
eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last daj^. 

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
indeed. 

He that eateth mj flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father 
hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that 
eateth me, even he shall live by me. 

This is that bread which came down from heaven : 
not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead : he 
that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." St. John, 
vi, 35. 

" And when they wanted wine the mother of Jesus 
saith unto him, They have no w T ine. 

And there was set there six water pots of stone, 
after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, contain- 
ing two or three firkins apiece. 

Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with 
water. And they filled them up to the brim. 

And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear 
unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 

When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water 
that was made wine, and knew not whence it was (but 
the servants which drew the water knew), the gov- 
ernor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith 



— 129 — 

unto him, Every man at the beginning cloth set forth 
good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that 
which is worse ; but thou hast kept the good wine 
until now. 

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of 
Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his dis- 
ciples believed on him." St. John, ii, 3. 

"And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth 
bread and wine ; and he was the priest of the most 
high God." Genesis, xiv, 18. 

" And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and 
blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, 
and said, Take, eat ; this is my body. 

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it 
to them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my 
blood of the new testament, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins. 

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of 
this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it 
new with you in my Father's kingdom. 

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out 
into the mount of Olives." St. Matthew, xxvi, 26. 



" Here's a health to those that I love; 
Here's a health to those that love me; 
Here's a health to those that love them that J love, 
And to those that love them that love me." 

And here I quaff a bumper of pure angelica and in- 
vert my glass — my dear little, priceless heirloom, my 
egg-shell tumbler. 

Aloha oe, Hawaii nei ! 



KING KALAKAUA I. 

[The account of the death of Kalakaua largely copied from San Francisco Chronicle.] 



DAVID Kalakaua, King of Hawaii, died in San 
Francisco at the Palace Hotel, at 2:33 o'clock in 
the afternoon of January 20, 1891. 

During the morning, four doctors were in attendance. 
They consulted and announced that in their opinion 
the King would not live more than a few hours. He 
had then been unconscious for nearly forty hours, 
with the exception of one brief moment in the early 
morning, when he spoke to Colonel Baker, saying: 
" Well, I am a very sick man." These were his last 
intelligible words, for though he afterwards murmured 
as his strength failed him and he advanced deeper into 
the valley of the shadow of death, his words were only 
the babblings of delirium. He spoke in his native 
tongue, and again wandered upon the beach of Hawaii 
and gazed out upon the broad Pacific. All royalty and 
pomp were forgotten in the mind of the dying King, 
who seemed, as he died, to be in a swoon. 

Kneeling at the bedside, Rev. J. Sanders Reed 
recited the Twenty-third Psalm, "The Lord is My 
Shepherd." At 1:34 o'clock, Rev. J. Sanders Reed 
said: "Shall we kneel and have the Commendatory 
Prayer?" The minister then continued to read pray- 



— 131 — 

ers and recite hymns, among the latter being, " Rock 
of Ages," "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," and 
" How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds to a Believer's 
Ears." At 2:20 o'clock it w r as apparent that death 
was only a few moments off. Rev. Dr. Reed again 
read a psalm, and the Rev. Dr. Church sang Newman's 
hymn, "Abide with Me." A few moments later, Dr. 
Reed kneeled at the bedside and began to pray, his 
petitions being joined in by all present. "Oh, Lord! 
Oh, Jesus Christ!" said the clergyman, "we pray thee 
to look upon this, thy servant, whose spirit is about to 
appear before thee, and we ask for him thy blessing. 
Oh, Jesus, as thou hast led him on through life, take 
him, we pray thee, to thy bosom now. We commend 
his spirit to thy trust. Grant him, — ." The prayer 
suddenly ceased for a moment; the people rose; the 
King had ceased to breathe. It seemed that he was 
dead. For half a minute his body was motionless and 
not a sound escaped it, and then, with a sigh that 
seemed to partake both of a sob and a groan, his res- 
piration continued. " Grant him, Lord, eternal life. 
Lord Jesus, grant him thy eternal spirit. Grant him 
a moment of conscious faith that he may have thy 
consolation and thy mercy. Oh, Lord, come into his 
heart and — ." Again the breath had left the dying 
monarch. As before, he was to all appearances dead, 
but again the last few sparks of life within the body 
asserted themselves, and again, with a sob, the air 
rushed into his lungs. " — cleanse his soul, Lord 
Jesus Christ, be with him yet in the body, so that he 



— 132 — 

may be present faultless before the Holy of Holies 
with every joy. Grant him, Lord, eternal rest." 
Once again the respiration of the King ceased. Now 
his eyes turned upward to the heaven to which the 
petition in his behalf was so devoutly addressed. It 
was a moment of intense suspense. Half a minute 
passed; no one moved; a minute, and a sign went 
around the room. Kalakaua was dead. It was 2 : 33 
o'clock. " Oh Christ, hear us," continued the minis- 
ter. " Oh Lord, have mercy upon us, and thou who 
takest away the sins of the world, look down upon us 
and hear our prayers, that he who has passed away 
shall sit with the Father, who is everlasting. Such is 
our prayer." He ceased. 

Kalakaua I was born on November 16, 1836, and 
was in his fifty-fifth year. Kapiolani, who, by the 
death of her husband, becomes the Queen-dowager of 
Hawaii, was born on December 31, 1835, and was 
married to the late King nearly a quarter of a century 
ago. She is a lady of refinement and education, and, 
by her simple habits and manifold charities, has ren- 
dered her name a household word among the poor 
and sick of her kingdom. She is a devout member of 
the English Church. 

Her Royal Highness, sister of King Kalakaua, now 
Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, was born in Honolulu, 
September 2, 1838. She is a woman of fine intellect 
and remarkable ability. On September 16, 1862, she 
was married to John Owen Dominis, who, on the ac- 
cession of her brother to the; throne, became the Gov- 



— 133 — 

ernor of the Island of Oahu and a member of the 
King's Privy Council. The Queen is a member of 
Kaumakapili Church — Presbyterian. 

On the arrival at Honolulu of the United States' 
Ship Charleston, on January 29th, with the remains 
of the late monarch, Kalakaua, the grief of the 
Hawaiians knew no bounds, and the excitement was 
intense. The entire population turned into the streets. 
The natives gave vent in their peculiar heart-rending 
style to the mele, or chant of grief, and lighted the 
torches that, in accordance with their traditions, are 
only to be burned for dead royalty. 

As the procession from the Charleston, bearing the 
remains of the dead King, was entering the palace 
grounds, a beautiful rainbow was seen above spanning 
the place. Few have been seen that equaled, this one 
in brilliancy. 

The funeral was arranged for February 15th, from 
the Iolani Palace at 11 o'clock. It was conducted in 
accordance with the rites of the Episcopal Church of 
which he w T as a member by Rt. Rev. Alfred Willis, 
D. D., Bishop of Honolulu. 

The body was deposited in the mausoleum erected 
by Kalakaua at a great expense, and in which are the 
remains of his family as well as the relicts of the line 
of Kamehameha. 



THE END. 



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